The 2015 Hammer Circle reunion was held at the Woodford Green Athletic Club. This was the first time that the Essex based club had hosted the event in the 63 years since the Hammer Circle was formed.
Over ninety athletes, coaches, officials and family members gathered for the weekend’s competition and social events. It is a magnificent occasion with a unique atmosphere.
The competitions are held on both the Saturday and Sunday and the best results from all the weekend’s competitions decide the winners of each age category.
Six of Kingston’s young hammer throwers travelled down to Woodford Green, along with senior members of the ‘Hull Hammer Squad’, led by coaches Dave and Diane Smith.
In the under 15 boy’s category the leading places were taken by two throwers attending their first reunion.
Shaun Kerry is an outstanding all round athlete who excels both on the track and in the field. 2015 was Shaun’s debut season as a hammer thrower and he has made excellent progress. He won the Humberside County title in May, the Humberside Schools title in June, July found him at Gateshead as a finalist in the English Schools Championships, and in August he won the Northern Championship title.
Shaun was the winner of the under 15 boy’s competition at the reunion with his best throw being one of 45.94m.
Will Robinson is in his debut season with Kingston and he has collected silver medals at the Northern Championships, Humberside County and Humberside Schools Championships, being edged out in all of them by his training partner Shaun. He also competed in the hammer final at the English Schools Championships.
He won another silver medal at Woodford Green with a throw of 43.17m.
The under 17 girl’s category saw England International and English Schools silver medallist Olivia Stevenson take 2nd place with a best throw on the weekend of 49.96m.
Olivia won Sundays 7.26k weight throw competition, where she registered a new PB of 15.80m.
Team mate Alice Barnsdale took second place in the weight competition, with a throw of 14.26m, which was a new PB. She also registered a new PB of 44.20m, in the 4k hammer event.
Northern Champion and English Schools silver medallist Maggie Okul took 2nd place in the under 20 women’s competition, with her best throw of the weekend, one of 47.70m.
Maggie picked up another 2nd place in the 9.08k weight throw event. Her best effort was one of 13.83m.
Sian Kerry is another multi talented athlete, who has only recently taken up hammer throwing. She set a new PB in Saturday’s competition, with a throw of 25.24m. In Sunday’s event she set her 2nd new PB of the weekend, increasing her best to 28.26m.
After all the competitions had finished on Sunday afternoon, everyone gathered indoors for the annual general meeting of the Hammer Circle. Once all business had been discussed and settled for another year, came the climax of the reunion, the presentation of awards to the top athletes of the 2015 season.
The ‘Chris Preston’ Winter Handicap Trophy, is a team competition and it was won for the 2nd year in succession by the ‘Hull Hammer Squad’, who this year were represented by Olympic finalist and Commonwealth silver medallist Alex Smith, England and Great Britain international and 6 times English Schools Champion Abbi Carter, former UK record holder Olivia Stevenson, and last but most certainly not least, coach Diane Smith.
‘The Junior Ladies Cup’ which is awarded to the most promising junior lady member, was this year awarded to Maggie Okul, who in 2015 has held the UK no.2 ranking for virtually the entire season and has made a 7.21m improvement on her personal best performance.
The ‘Pauline Spick Trophy’ which is awarded to the young female thrower with the most improved personal best performance (over 50m) also went to Maggie Okul, with a 3.46m improvement over the 50m mark.
