News: June 2021

Three of the Club’s younger athletes were in action at Lee Valley over the weekend, representing Hertfordshire Schools at the Regional Schools Combined Events Championships. Up against athletes from London, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire Berkshire and Middlesex Junior athletes Bobby Pitman, Jamie Timms and Lucy Baverstock competed in their first Pentathlons. Jamie and Bobby were in action on Saturday and finished in 9th and 10th place respectively with total point scores of 2172 and 2072 points. Jamie had personal best performances in the 80H 12.7, SP 7m77, HJ 1m53 and 800m 2.22nins while Bobby’s were in the hurdles 13.0, SP 8m54, HJ 1m41, LJ 4m94 and 800m 2.25mins. The Hertfordshire team were second. Lucy was in action on the Sunday scoring and was the only Herts athlete to finish in the Junior Girls competition with a total score of 2,357 points. PBs came in the 75H 12.8, SP 7m47 and 800m 2.50mins.

11 of the Clubs athletes travelled to Perivale for the second Youth Development League of the season for U17/20 athletes. U20 Libby Taylor won her Hammer competition easily, throwing over 43 meters. Emily Knight was second in the 100m hurdles in 16.3 and U17 Isaac Whitten was third in the 1500SC.

A very different English Schools Championship awaits the five SNHAC athletes selected to represent Hertfordshire Schools in Manchester at the end of next week. No travelling with a team, limited spectators, and a different age group each day. Only the top ranked 16 in the country in each event are competing with time trials replacing heats and finals in the long sprint, sprint hurdles and endurance events.

Ranked 1st in the Country Intermediate Girl Jessica Astill is set to compete in the 300m, ranked 12th Shanumi Akinfenwa will compete in the high jump and Will Galliford ranked 10th will compete in the 1500m steeple Chase. Seniors Ed Laws and Joel Evans ranked 8th and 10th respectively will compete in the 400m hurdles. Ranked 7th Intermediate Girl Aimie Taylor will be representing Cambridgeshire Schools in the Pole Vault.

Provisional results from the SAL at Ware 20/6/21. Please note that ladies 200m not available at present

The Club are running a Summer Holiday Athletic Programme over three weeks during the Summer Holidays. In view of the limited capacity we have had on the track for training since returning from ‘lock down’ we are offering this to Club Members first, before sending the information out to schools and the wider community. Initially there will be 25 places available each day. This is for young people aged 8 -14years only.

Dates are below and each session will run from 9.30am – 1.30pm :-

9th August

10th August

11th August

12th August

16th August

17th August

18th August

19th August

23rd August

24th August

25th August

26th August

Cost is £20 each session or £15 each session if booking 4 or more.

The link to the application form is above (it can be found on the Membership and Application Form section of the Club Website)

Application Forms should be emailed to normajharris@hotmail.co.uk and payment made by BACS – details are on the form.

SNHAC launched their Scott's Travel 10k Midweek League Campaign with a 3rd place out of the 8 teams in Division 3. This was a virtual fixture with athletes logging a time on a course of their choosing.

Quickest, and finishing 4th overall, was Chris Westcott who ran a time of 38.39 (2nd Vet finisher). Adam Searle (44.02) and Andy Robson (44.17) finished "next to each other" in 20th and 21st. Isaac Whitten (45.39) just finished in front of Trevor Mason (45.59) who were 25th and 26th respectively. Paul Spicer was 31st in 47.13, Paul Pickard was 45th (56.10), Bob Whitten was 51st (61.27), Mark Pinney 54th (66.29) and Graham Spicer 57th (72.01).

In the ladies race Alex Gates was the first to finish with her time of 49.59 seeing her come in 7th place. Jenny Cotter and Chris Feely came in equal 11th in 52.14.

For two athletes there was more competition to come. Alex Gates and Trevor Mason both completed the Hertfordshire Half Marathon. The course from Knebworth House was hilly and challenging and the weather was hot but they finished in 1 hour 47 (37th lady) for Alex and 1 hour 44 (192nd man) for Trevor. A great achievement by both in tough conditions! There were over 1100 finishers in the race.

The next round of the Scott's Travel Midweek League is also virtual and runs from the 14th-27th June.