News: June 2024

SNHAC/HAWCS, London Heathside, Herts Phoenix, Harlow, Tower Hamlets with Victoria Park and Central Park contested a closely fought Southern Athletic League match at Stevenage on Saturday. The day started with light rain and a blustery wind but by mid-afternoon summer had arrived.
Highlights of the day included the 4x100m men’s Club record finally being broken. Set 42 years ago when senior sprint coach Paul Keeble was in the team, it was finally broken by Nile Odejimi Riley, Jamie Joseph, Ed Laws and Jacob Kinchin Smith. The previous record was 43.2, which was reduced to 43.0. U17 Esme Searle had a lovely run in the 1500sc to break the age group record which had stood since 2011.
A string wins for the men came from Ed Laws 400H, Nile Odejimi Riley TJ and Bobby Pitman DT. B wins came from Jamie Joseph 200m, Dylan Baines LJ, Jacob Kinchin Smith TJ and Bobby Pitman PV.
The women’s team saw A & B wins in the LJ (Emily Rapley and Shannon Rapacchi), TJ (Shannon Rapacchi and Esme Searle), Shot (Libby Taylor and Louise Hampton), DT (Shannon Rapacchi and Libby Taylor) and Hammer (Libby Taylor and Loren Ragoobar). Shannon Rapacchi won the A pole vault and Sandra Reed the B 100H.
The match ended with a win by London Heathside 249, with HPX and SNHAC/HAWCS joint second with 241. Harlow were 4th, Tower Hamlets with Victoria Park 5th and Central Park 6th.
Team manager Rhys Samuel was delighted with the result, records and team spirit.

Thirty one SNHAC runners took on the second 10k midweek league last Tuesday. A challenging course around country lanes to the south of Royston was made even more eventful by the threat from dark clouds although the worst of the rain held off until most were finished!

Leading the men to a 4th place finish was Adam Searle (8th in 37.50) with Aubrey Murray next (19th, 39.38) just one place ahead of Isaac Whitten (19th in 39.45). First woman home was Abigail Manson (10th in 46.12). She was followed home by Rebecca Pickard (25th, 49.17) and then Amelie Hobbs (50.22 for 30th).

Overall, the team came 5th of the 10 teams. The next race is in Harlow next week and we will be hoping for another record turn out!

Up against two of the biggest Clubs in the East Region, the SNHAC/HAWCS composite team finished third behind Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers and City of Norwich at Sandy on Sunday, beating Bedford Lions and Harlow to maintain 12th place after three rounds.
Wins were hard to come by. U13 Elijah Ragoobar won the A string DT and Kyle Moffat the B JT. U15 Jake Avis won the A 300m and B 100m, while Alastair Gall Gray won the B LJ. U17 Archie Blyth Grimes, in his first competition for the Club, won the LJ, Zachary Czech won the HT and Hugo MacFarlane Cushing the B TJ.
U15s Ellie Picton and Scarlett Victory won the A and B string 75H with Scarlett winning the B HJ, Karolina Wolowicz won the B 800m and Skye Barnet the B DT. Competing in the U17 age group, Sarena So and Hannah Cook won the A and B 1500m, Esme Searle the B 800m and TJ.
There were lots of personal best performances in all age groups and the athletes competing in Club colours for the first time produced excellent results.
Team Manager’s Libby and Jane Taylor were delight with the team performance and impressed with the number of athletes who volunteered to fill gaps, stepped up an age group or took on an unfamiliar event when a gap appeared.
Full results are on the website.
The last round is on the 21st July at Chelmsford. Team Managers Melissa Doran and Libby Taylor would like to see a full team to ensure a place in the Plate final on 8th September.

Instead of a trip to the beach 16 SNHAC/HAWCS athletes and 6 Officials made the trip to Kings Park Bournemouth for the second Youth Development League Match of the season. Thanks must go to Jane and Aimee Taylor who made the round trip from Nottingham, Phil and Julie Laws who broke into their holiday, along with Sally Stevens and Sarah Berry for providing the Officials required for the match. The Club received at 20 point deduction for not having a L2 Field Official (Norma tested positive for Covid Saturday morning and was unable to travel), so instead of 48 points the team only received 28 for Officials.
The 17 athletes produced some great performances/PBs and filled as many events as possible to gain points.
U17’s Esme Searle and Aubrey Murray won the steeplechase and Ben Lewis TJ, U20’s Aimie Taylor won the A PV, HJ and B string TJ, Daniel Kanu HJ and Jamie Timms A JT and B LJ.
Also competing were Kamila Adebayo, Laurena Dawkins, Megan Thomas, Georgia Sutcliffe, Ruby Cheshire, Maisie Newton, Tallulah Taylor, Abigail Manson, Hugo MacFarlane Cushing and Edward Turner.
Team Manager Tallulah Taylor was delighted by the team spirit and would like to see all the Club’s U17 and U20 athletes in action at the last YDL of the season on the 30th June at Perivale.
Full results are on the Club website.