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Reading Athletic Club |
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Latest News Reading Athletic Club Latest News
Gold for Georgia, silver and club record for Natalie and silver for Shakira at U20 Southern Inter Counties!! 6 Reading female athletes were representing Berkshire this past Sunday at the Soutern Inter Counties Championships at Barnet. U17 sprinter, Georgia Lamothe showed no signs of worrying about competing at an older level in these championships as she breezed through the heats with a time of 25.64 to then go on a secure gold in the final with an improved time of 25.58. Fellow U17 Natalie Beale then produced an excellent effort in the 400mh, in only her 3rd race over this distance, she clocked the fastest time at the club for a number of season's, also smashing the u17 club record in the process as she secured silver in a superb time of 64.98. U20, Shakira Whight added another medal to her collection, in what has been a long season for her, as she leapt 11.40m for silver in the triple jump event. Coral Stewart took a creditable 7th in the hammer event, with an improved throw of 33.72m, Charlotte Webb finished 11th in the shot as she threw 8.52m, whilst Julia Henderson competed in the 800m and ran a disapointing 2.28.70 in her heat. Full results can be found in the results section.
Medals Galore at Radley Ac Open Meeting!!!! Having been cancelled back in March due to poor weather conditions, the Radley Ac Open was replanned for this past Saturday, where a handfull of those previously entered, still competed, resulting in some medal winning performances and again another club record for Lukesha Morris, who in the 80m sprint, bettered her existing record with gold medal winning time of 10.46, she completed the sprint double by winning the 150m just as comfortably. Rebecca Keating and Katherine West were the other U13's in action as they competed well in their events, Katherine setting 2 more personal bests, making that 6 new bests in just 2 weeks! Rebecca also produced a couple of personal bests. For the U15's Jess Palmer and Rachel Pithers competed over the sprints well. Both made the 100m final, in which Jess set a new best to finish 2nd with Rachel taking bronze, both then made the 200m final where the roles were reversed with Rachel taking bronze and Jess finishing 4th. Charlotte Webb competed well in the U17 shot, discus and Javelin events, as did Emily Smith in the U17 shot, whilst Julie Wilson also threw well in the senior throws, competing in the shot, discus, javelin and hammer events, posting some improved throws in the process. Full results can be found in the results section.
Second Club Championships provides some excellent Performances!!! Reading Athletic Club hosted their second club championship fixture of the season and with come some superb races and performances. The female side saw some competitive track races as well as some exceptional
field performances. The U13 girls saw Lukesha Morris comfortably take the 150m title, with Georgina
Westwood silver and Jess Pointing the bronze. The 3 medalists in the 600m all set superb pb's. Emily Stone secured the title,
with Sian Wakerley 2nd and Mollie Haines bronze. Georgina was back in the medals as she won the high jump, Lukesha, took equal
2nd, with a surprise good leap from Nicole Harkness, both girls leaping 1.20m. Isabelle Evans was then awarded the bronze
with 1.15m. Georgina claimed her 3rd medal, winning the javelin, Katherine West threw well to take silver, with Jess
Pointing the bronze. The highlight of the U15 events, was the emergence of recent signing, April
Taylor. Having only joined the club Tuesday, she leapt a fantastic 1.54m to win the high jump. Charlotte Gibbs secured the
silver in the same event. The 200m was a close fought affair, Jess Palmer secured the title in style, with Rachel Pithers
taking silver, with Amy Banning coming through to take Bronze. The 800m was also close, Naomi Forshaw was a convincing winner,
Amy Banning 2nd and Siobhan Addison took the bronze. The U17 women saw Georgia Lamothe domiante
the 200m, with Natalie Beale taking silver, Natalie went one better though and scored a gold of her own in winning the 400mh.
Julia Henderson took the 800m title, Laura Elliott then took the silver medal. Laura Pearce made a significant return to form
with a throw over 28m to win the javelin, Charlotte Webb threw well for silver and in the hammer Coral Stewart claimed the
title, with Laura taking silver and Charlotte the bronze. The U20's saw Hannah Copland win the
400mh title, Anna Boniface the 3k title and Elizabeth Goddard the Hammer title. For the Senior's
Sue Francis claimed a hat-trick of victories, beginning in the 200m, then the 800m and finally in the 3k, an event in which
Lucy Daniels took the silver and Sarah Wilkins the bronze, both girls setting new pb's. Stella Bacon came out on top in the
javelin with Julie Wilson taking the silver, the roles were then reversed in the hammer, in which Julie took the title, with
Stella gaining the silver medal. The U11 competition on the day,
proved very competitive. Matillda McAdden looks a grea aquisition, as she scored victories in both the 150m and 600m, Ella
McNeil secured the silver medals, behind Matillda in both those events, with Loni Stephens taking the bronze in the 150m and
Lois Meredith taking the bronze in the 600m. Ella Young won the cricket ball throw, with Ella McNeil securing another silver
in that event, whilst it was Sophie Liu who came through to bag her self a medal with bronze. Full results can be found in the results section.
Georgia, Natalie, Ashleigh and Ryan all in action at U15/U17 National Champs! 4 Reading Athletic Club Athletes were in action at the Birmingham Alexander Stadium this past weekend as they contested the U15/U17 National Track and Field Championships. On the Saturday Natalie Beale kicked off the programme with a 3rd place finish in the 300mh heats with a time of 45.40 to advance to Sunday's final. Georgia Lamothe competed Saturday and opened her account with a 12.57 clocking for 2nd place in heat 4, to make the semi final, in which she went quicker, clocking a time of 12.37 for 3rd place to secure a spot in the final. In the final she competed well in a quality field to clock 12.43 for 9th. Sunday saw Natalie back in action in the final, where she finished 5th in an improved time of 44.80. Ashleigh Roberts gained usefull experience as she competed in the U15 75mh and clocked 12.48 in heat 2. Ryan Bonifas also competed on the Sunday as he tackled the U15 high jump, where he finished 7th with a height of 1.74m. Full results can be found in the results section.
Young Female athletes secure first Alder Valley League title for over 10 years!!! Reading Athletic Club's U13, U15 and U17 female side contested their final league fixture of the Alder Valley League at Guildford on August the 3rd. They found theirselves at the top of the table after 2 matches and knew a good score on the day could secure their first league title in this competition for well over 10 years. The team took a brilliant 2nd on the day, with their points score being good enough to land them their first league title, with the added bonus of also winning the U13 and U15 age group competitions and finishing runner's up spot in the U17 age group. Reading had a suprisingly good turn-out, as usually the teams are hit hard by holiday's, but
only a handfull were away and unavailable. They day saw some superb performances. The hardest hit age group was the U17 ladies,
but they rallied aroudn to secure numerous points. Natalie Beale secured a hurdles double in winning the 80mh and 300mh, Aimee
Partridge won the b-string 300mh in a new pb. Georgia Lamothe was dominant in the 100m race. Coral Stewart, Charlotte Webb
and Laura Pearce all secured victories between them in the 4 throwing events. In the U15 age group, Emma Pilkington caught
they eye with 2 fantastic pb performances in the 100m and 200m, Alice Wigmore won the b-string 200m. Ashleigh Roberts romped
to victory in the 75mh, then did the same in the long jump event. Dani Opara and Ellie Ballantine secured a double shot putt
victory, with Ballantine also taking a b-string discus victory. In the U13 girls competition, Lukesha Morris maintained her
unbeaten record as she won the 75m and 150m, Jess Pointing ran her first ever 150m and took victory in the b-string. Mollie
Haines ran a superb tactical race to win the b-string 600m, whilst Issy Galardo picked up a win in the b-string discus. The
U13 and U17 relay teams secured well deserved victory, whilst the U15 team took the runners up spot. There was also some encouraging
performances from the non-scorers, including some promisinig results from the U11 girls.
Full results can be found in the results section.
Ladies give brave performance but cannot stop the inevitable as team relegated to UK Division 4! Reading Athletic Club's Senior Women made a weekend trip to Wigan this past weekend to contest their final UK Womens League Division 3 fixture. Having struggled to field a full strength team all season due to injuries and other various reason's, the team found theirselves in relegation troubles. Infact the only way they could survive was to beat the host club on the day. Inevitably, being at home, Wigan were at full strength and did enough to beat Reading and unfortunatly send Reading back to Division 4 for 2009. Altough Reading fielded probably their strongest team of the 3 UK League matches, they still were missing a large number, with injuries and holiday and personal commitments playing their part. Whilst it was disapointing to be relegated, you could not fault the effort of the athletes who gave up their weekend, to compete for the club and in truth the damage was done in the first 2 fixtures. However, not to dwell on the disapointment, Reading can look forward to 2009 back in Division 4 knowing they will be so much stronger, not just in quality, but in quantity as a large number of talented U17's will move into the U20 age group and some of their key athletes, in particularly the field events, will be back from long term injuries next season. On the day Shelley Bowen was her usual consistant self, she has been so vital to the team this season,
providing such a consistant performer in the sprints. She again gave a solid effort as she finished in some close sprint races,
gaining 3rd in both the 100m and 200m. Kate Baldwin made her return to competition after a recent foot operation and threw
well in the hammer and discus, whilst Elizabeth Goddard again made a return to the team to help the club out in the absence
of the club's recognised throwers, she threw a good hammer and shot putt, showing that she still has the ability to compete
at this level. Annie Bolton and Rachel Phillips both ran brave 800m races and the doubled up for the 400m event. Hannah Copland
and Lee Fellowes gave a good account in the 400mh, with Lee running a particularly impressive 100mh b-string. Katie Miller
also ran a good a-string in the 100mh, as well as clocking a decent 100m b-string time. Shakira Whight made her first outing
in the UK League this season and leapt well in the long and triple jumps, despite having some big no jumps, only just fractionally
over the board, whilst Meryl Austin, competed despite not fully recovering from a foot injury and bravely jumped well for
vital points, even though it meant it would effectively end her season. Lucy Daniels ran a pb in the 3k as well as equalling
her pb's in the pole vault and high jump. Debbie Taylor and Sarah Wilkins ran good 1500m races, whilst Annie Bolton and Nicky
Cooke filled the vacant javelin spots to round off the day, with the relays to go, where, despite battling hard, the finished
7th and 8th in the 4x100 and 4x400 respectively.
It left Reading 7th on the day and 7th overall. They must now build and strengthen to make sure that
they make a immediate return in 2009.
Full results can be found in the results section.
Senior Men finish of league campaign with creditable 3rd! Reading’s men travelled to Sutcliffe Park, Eltham for their final SML fixture of the season on Saturday 2nd August. With qualification for the National league play off match based on the top two performances in each event, the priority was to produce season’s bests in certain events. The middle distance
runners in particular needed to step up their level of performance and they duly obliged in some style. In the 800m both Matt
Dawson and Simon Reed ran pb’s, with Matt taking 2nd in the A string with 1.55.8 and Simon winning the B
string in 1.58.4. In the 1500m, Mark Curson also ran a pb to come 2nd in the A string in 4.07.6 and Carl Bradbury
ran a season’s best to win the B string in 4.10.0. Nick Earl tackled the Steeplechase for the first time this season
and ran 9.41.1 to head the club rankings. Stephen Granger-Bevan ran a season’s best to win the B string chase also.
The
horizontal jumps were other events that needed improving and this was achieved due to the return to the team of Neil Barton
after a years’ absence. He leapt to 6.38m in the long jump and 13.04m in the triple jump. The last event to be improved
upon was the 4x400m relay. The team of Rian Corbin, Simon Reed, Matt Dawson and Mike Dyer led from the gun and bought the
baton home in a season’s best of 3.26.4. Chris Toms put in a huge effort to compete in all four throwing
events and Mike Dyer was his usual busy self, competing in six events and recording 3 victories within that. Phil Brickley
performed to his usual high level to win the 100m and was ably backed up in the sprints by Rian Corbin, Sam Hickman and Craig
Walters. James Osun-Samni once again bettered 13 metres in the triple jump and Phil Wren returned to the team to compete well
in the 400m. James Gibson and Luke Wale demonstrated great team commitment by coming off the physio’s table to compete
in the high jump and shot putt respectively. John Burnett, Chris Bell and Richard Kinnersley also proved their worth by competing
in a number of events that they wouldn’t consider as their normal events and were rewarded with a string of pb’s.
In
the match Reading came 3rd on the day, which means they finished 6th overall in the 25-team league.
This rounds off a successful and enjoyable league campaign for the men’s team. The men now have a nervous wait over
the next couple of weeks to see if their performances have earned them a place in the British Athletics League qualifying
match, which takes place on Saturday 13th September at Abingdon. |
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