Six of the best for super R&N
Copyright Bryan Acford
IT was a case of six of the best at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham at the weekend as Rugby & Northampton saw half-a-dozen of their athletes become Midland champions.
There were six gold medal winners in the Midlands Indoor Championships, as well as three silver and two bronze medal winners.
Sprint coach Roy Humphries has, during his 45 years as an athletic coach, had many successes with his athletes up to Olympic and European level.
And at Birmingham, two of his athletes who are separated by 20 years of age, were again gold stars.
In the women’s sprints, Ellena Ruddock, an ex-Great Britain international, won the senior ladies 200m in a time of 24.81 secs.
Ruddock, who has been with Humphries for 22 years, and who enjoys her 36th birthday in two weeks’ time, rolled back the years by winning the 60m final by a metre over her younger competitors, in her best time for three years, clocking 7.76 secs.
Now to the 20-year gap in age.
Ciaran Wardle, who celebrates his 16th birthday in two weeks, won the 200m crown.
He won his heat in 22.56 seconds, just outside his best outdoor time, and in the final, a poor second phase did not trouble him, and he won the Midland title by a metre in 22.75 secs.
The day before in the 60m event he won his heat in the new PB in 7.26 secs, and in the final he improved further with a time of 7.19 secs, to finish second.
Wardle now moves on to the AAA U/17 Championships in two weeks, again at the NIA in Birmingham.
Ruddock moves on to the British Masters Championships in Lee Valley in London in four weeks, and then onto the European Indoor Championships in Finland in early April, where she must be one of the favourites to win the sprint titles.
It was a good weekend for the hurdlers with two medals coming in the sprint hurdles.
Leading from the gun, Luke Townsend won gold in the U17 men’s 60m hurdles with a personal best of 8.36 seconds, a time placing him sixth in the UK rankings this year.
James Wright overcame tough opposition to earn a well-deserved bronze medal in the U20 men’s 60-metre hurdles with a personal best of 8.21 seconds, taking him to seventh in the rankings.
In her first race over the new height and distance, Brittany Wood came fourth in her heat in the U15 girls 60-metre hurdles with a time of 10.90 seconds.
Wood also finished fourth in her shot putt with 7.79 metres - just outside the medals.
It was a busy weekend for Ella Forsyth competing in a range of events in the U17 women, and she showed great improvement in her hurdles with a time of 9.89 seconds.
Success also came in the sprints with Simone Ager grabbing gold in the U15 girls 60 metres with a superb time of 9.01 seconds.
Timothy Kerr-Chin claimed two sprint medals, with silver in the U15 boys 200m with 24.12 seconds and second in the 60 metres with 7.50 seconds.
Adding to the medals in his sprinting debut, Cage Boons showed his raw talent, running an excellent 7.26 seconds to gain bronze in the U17 men 60 metres to have two R&N athletes on the podium!
Grace Adeyinka narrowly missed out on a medal, coming fourth in the U17 women’s 200 metres with 26.85 seconds.
Moving up to the senior ranks at just 19, Tom Johnson, recorded 23.91 secs for the 200m and 7.7 secs for the 60m event.
Many athletes were new to the indoor 200m track were making their debut in the sprints with Megan Exley fourth in her heat with 29.35 and Ella Forsyth second in her heat with 27.64 seconds.
Ellie Sobers came fifth in her 60m heat.
In the U15 girls Tia Clues came sixth in her heat with 8.94 seconds and Flora Courtney was seventh with 9.03.
Over the longer distances Libby Lea finished fourth in her 200m heat with 29.17 and Adam Wright knocked a chunk off his outdoor PB to finish fourth in the U17 men’s 400m with a time of 55.46 seconds.
Adding to these successes, the club had excellent results in the horizontal jumps.
Cage Boons won gold in the triple jump with 13.45m, putting him top of the UK rankings this year.
Another silver medal came for Timothy Kerr-Chin who jumped a distance of 5.87m in the long jump, placing him second in the UK this year.
Simone Ager, who jumped 4.96 metres to claim the U15 girls bronze, with Tia Clues seventh with 4.40m.
Katie Rowe finished sixth in the U20 women’s triple jump with 10.90m. Andrew Reeves was sixth in the senior men’s high jump with 1.75m.
Megan Exley came 13th in the U17 women’s long jump with 4.19m. Ella Forsyth came fifth in her triple jump with 9.51 metres.
Despite no medals in the long distance events, there were still some fine performances.
Tilly Lea finished seventh in her 800m final with a time of 2:42.52, Chris Lamb second in the senior men’s 800m heats with 1:59.26, Flora Courtney was fourth in the U15 girls 800m final with 2.41.95 and Adam Wright was fourth in his heat with 2:07.96.
Only one R&N athlete competed in the junior quadrathon event, and Milan Clues was narrowly beaten to a medal and finished fourth with an impressive 1275 points.
Overall a great weekend for the club, with a good mix of athletes competing and best indoor performances at this high quality event over recent years.
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