2012 NEWS

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South of England Indoor Championships
Week 2

The South of England Indoor Athletic Championships continued over the weekend with the remainder of the events taking place over the Saturday and Sunday. Six Andover AC athletes were competing; Matt Chant who was hoping to build upon the 400m silver medal he achieved last week, and Lauren Marlow and Annie Brooks all competing in the Under 17s categories, Alice Boughton in the Under 20 Womens, and Andre Diurno (60 Metres) and Adam Ricketts (200m) in the Senior Mens.

cid:1.2386427944@web29604.mail.ird.yahoo.com Following last week’s exploits and competing over the shorter distance of 200m Matt had to cope with another 3 rounds, approx 1.5 hours apart, which is a lot to ask at this level at the age of 15. Despite this, Matt showed true class to take both his heat and semi final in very convincing fashion, qualifying for the final as the fastest qualifier, despite being bottom age in the category. Facing last year's u17 champion, Jermaine Hamilton from Orion Harriers (now top age) in the final, it was always going to be a great race and it did not disappoint. Hamilton won in a new championship best time with Matt just behind in a new personal best time (PB) of 22.63 to take his second Indoor South of England medal. Six rounds in a week was a tough week and Matt did himself very proud coming home with two silver medal. To help put these results in to context, last year's U15 champion, and Championship record holder for the U15B 200m who, like Matt, had also moved up to this age group this year, got knocked out in the semi final.

Annie Brooks was competing in her first ever SEAA triple jump. Annie achieved a great set of results including jumps of 10.57m, equalling her PB and the Club Record (CR), and following this up with 10.59 smashing her PB and the CR. This fine achievement was due to a more effective run up and stronger jump phase. Commenting after the event Annie said “ I would like to thank the special attention that Ernie Chambers has given me over the last few months to help refine my Triple Jump technique.”

Lauren Marlow is another ever improving athlete, competing against a large field of over 30 athletes, Lauren smashed her current 60m Hurdles PB and the CR with a time of 9.39 to secure a place in the semi final. In the Semi’s she also ran a time under her old PB just missing out on a place in the final. Lauren followed this up with a great series of jumps in the Long Jump, which also had a high number of competitors, finishing in a very creditable fifth place. Her best jump of the series, 4.98m, a new indoor PB and her 2nd furthest jump ever.

Keeping the trend of PBs and breaking CRs, Alice Broughton qualified for the final of the 60m Hurdles final, taking 8th place in the final in a time of 9.72. This is the first time Alice has ever competed at the SEAA indoors and only the second time she has ever run over this distance.

James Coney, Andover AC Senior Coach said “A great set of results for the club - 3 silver medals from across the championships in the 400m, 200m and TJ plus a number of semi finalists and finalists and lots of PBs and club records made it a fantastic Championships for the club.”.

South of England Indoor Championships

Matt Chant took his place amongst the best in the South over the weekend to compete in the South of England Indoor Championships. Matt is a novice at 400m and has only competed over this distance 4 times prior to this event and only once indoors.

He is also bottom age of the Under 17 mens age group so it looked to be a daunting task and the task was made even harder due to the fact there were so many entries leading to 3 rounds in one day; heats, 1.5 hours later the semi- final, 1.5 hours after that the final.

Matt took to his mission like a duck to water, qualifying easily within himself with a time of 53.10. His semi-final race took a little more effort, but again he qualified within himself in a time of 51.91. Then came the final. Lining up Matt was pitched against some of the best in the country and so he knew he would have to run close to his best to medal. He did not disappoint running a new personal best time of 50.95 to take the silver medal, beating last year’s U15 National Champion and silver medallist at the English Schools Championships in the process. This very quick time now ranks Matt number 2 for his age in the UK.

Matt is now looking forward to the National Championships which take place in Birmingham at the end of February, where again he will compete in the under 17 mens 400m.

Indoor Round Up

TVAC Eaton

The indoor season kicked off with a vengeance with some of Andover AC's sprinters, hurdlers and multi events involving a number of indoor meetings taking place across the country.

Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC Open Meeting held at Thames Valley Athletics Centre (TVAC), Eton are always a popular choice for local athletes and the first of 2012 attracted a large entry of over 160 athletes including a number from Andover AC.

First to compete from the club was Annie Brooks in the U17w triple jump, performing well to record an indoor Personal Best (PB) of 9.86m. Shortly after the triple jump, Senior Women's captain Hayley Coney and Annie were paired in the same 60m race. This was an exciting one to watch with Annie just taking the spoils with a new PB of 8.35 (a time that now qualifies her for the National Indoor Champs in February). Hayley also smashed her PB and set a new Senior Ladies club record (CR) with a time of 8.46. Under 13 girl, Holly Mills, also equalled both her PB and the current CR with 8.90.

Rising hurdles stars Holly Mills and Lauren Marlow (under 17 girl) competed in the 60m hurdles. Holly stormed to a new PB and CR of 10.34, a time that currently ranks her no.1 in the UK. Lauren also ran extremely well to secure one of her fastest ever times (9.74). Lauren followed this up by achieving a new indoor long jump PB of 4.84m, a massive 40cm further than this time last year.

Lee Valley Meta Switch saw current Hampshire Schools 200m Champion, Matt Chant take part in his first ever indoor 400m. Despite only just having moved up to this age group Matt took a comfortable victory at this highly competitive open in a very quick PB time of 52.53. This time will stand Matt in good contention at the Southern Indoor Championships next week.

Alice Boughton is a very rare athlete, able to excel at running, jumping and throwing events. She was competing at the National Multi Event Championships in Sheffield.

Despite being bottom age U20 (some of her rivals were nearly 3 years older than her) Alice took the brave step to enter her first ever National Multi Event/Pentathlon Championships in Sheffield. Alice performed brilliantly to secure PB's in the 60m Hurdles (10.16 which was also a CR), and the High Jump (1.56m), and followed this up by equalling her PB in the Long Jump (4.35m) with a quality throw in the Shot Putt (7.73m). Ninth overall, her total point’s score of 2760 was slightly short of the existing Andover AC club record which has stood for over 15 years.