There were lots of PBs, and one that really stands out was Steph Le Cornu’s 400m hurdles,’ Winnie said.
‘It was her first race at that distance and she did it in a time that only Claire Lidster has beaten, in the seniors.
We had a really fantastic two days, even the youngsters who didn’t get medals performed out of their skins, quite a few were competing for the first time and even those who didn’t get medals did well, there were a lot of fourth places.’ Throwers in all age categories performed well, Lauren Thérin winning gold in shot, javelin and discus in the senior category; Paul Derrien (competing for Richmond and Twickenham) winning gold in the hammer event and beating Commonwealth Games athlete Andy Frost in the process; Catarina Hallden (competing for City of Portsmouth) winning bronze in the discus; David Felton (17) coming home with U20s gold in shot and hammer, and silver in discus; Becky Slater (U17) claiming gold in javelin and silver in discus and Emma Wilton picking up the bronze, and then another in the shot; and Jamie Stevenson achieving gold in the discus and silver in the hammer.
The high throwing standards achieved by local athletes were also evident in the U15 age-group as Kathryn Rothwell won gold in the shot and Zane Duquemin’s discus throw won him a gold medal.
Senior track athlete Peter Irving produced a silver-winning 110m hurdles run, but that paled in comparison to his gold winning time of 54.09 sec in the one-lap hurdles event.
Elsewhere on the track, Stephen Prosser (U20) proved he is well on the way to recovery from last year’s knee operation by winning the 100m.
‘This was only Stephen’s second race since he had the reconstruction surgery on his knee.
He was out for 18 months afterwards, so he’s making his way back now,’ Winnie said.
U17 newcomer to competition, Will Perchard ran well in his sprint events and won a silver medal in the 400m in a time of 52.73 sec.
U20 Jason Fox and senior Simon Phelan were the only two left at the end of their high jump competition.
Although not competing against each other, the U20 and senior competitions were combined, and both won gold medals in their respective categories.
Fox was disappointed not to improve on his 2.0m pb, but his 1.95 jump was enough to win, as was Phelan’s comfortable 2.0m jump.
Steph Le Cornu won long and triple-jump silver medals, and bronze in the 400m and 400m hurdles.
Sophie Twinam worked hard throughout, and won gold for her 1.53m high jump, silver and bronze for the 300m and 80m hurdles respectively, and bronze in the triple jump.
In the long jump Jennie Harrop won bronze and Gemma Dawkins got silver in the triple-jump.
Stephen de la Haye had to work harder than most athletes when he competed in the long and triple jump competitions – both at the same time! ‘The triple-jump competition overran and was still going on when the long jump started on the other side of the track.
Stephen had to run from one to the other – but had to go round the outside of the track because you’re not allowed to go across the arena,’ Winnie explained.
‘We worked out he’d run 200m, four times, and was having to change his shoes on the way! But he won gold in both, and got a silver in the high jump!’ U15 girls Jenna Murphy, Amy Dingle and Lucy Crossman were up against UK No 1 Emma Buckett in their high jump competition.
Buckett won with a championship best 1.69m, but Murphy won silver and Dingle bronze, with 1.55 and 1.50m respectively.
Dingle then beat Buckett for a 75m gold medal but had to be content with silver in the long jump, and Murphy the bronze as the English girl took gold in that event.
Nicola Milner, Rebecca Houzé and Ruth Stilwell produced a one, two, three in the 2,500m walk.
Hampshire junior cross-country runner Felicity Johnson-Deeley won a 1,500m silver.
U15 Ross Jeffs produced a gold medal-winning performance in the high jump and a silver in the triple, and Nick Wildman’s 80m hurdles performance won him bronze.
Richard Sinel just missed out on a medal with a fourth place in the discus.
He was fifth in the hammer event.
And in the youngest age-group U13s Carey Fenton and Elliott Dorey, both good junior runners, collected bronze medals for their respective 800m runs, Dorey added bronze in the 1,500m and Fenton struck easy gold in the 2,500m walk and, in her first competition, Amelia Jones did exceptionally well to make the 100m final.
