News: July 2021

Youth Development League comes to Stevenage.

Stevenage and North Herts Athletic Club hosted the first full match of the Youth Development League at Ridlins Stadium on Sunday. The Club’s U20 and U17 athletes were up against teams from Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, Hillingdon, and composite teams from West London and Harrow/Dacorum and Tring. The threatened storms rumbled around, but apart from light drizzle in the morning, the match stayed dry. The performance of the day came from U20 Libby Taylor who set a new U20 Club record in the Hammer with a throw of 46m85. Returning from injury Nile Odejimi-Riley won the triple jump jumping 13m10, he ran a 11.7 100m to win the B String and a leg of the relay. Bluebell Cooke won the 800m in 2.20.31. Will Lawler ran a personal best for third place in the 110m Hurdles – 15.4, also in action Jacob Kinchin Smith 200m and Alex Pickard 100m joined Nile and U17 Will Galliford to run the 4x100m relay. Olivia Lindsay came third in the long jump - 4m89 and Dani Mainstone in her first competition since ankle surgery in 2019 won the B shot. U17 Annabel Howells was second in the 300m 43.25, Amelie Hobbs came second in the 3000m - 12.20.13 and Aimie Taylor equalled her personal best in the pole vault with a clearance of 3m20 for second place. In the U17 boy’s competition Will Galliford came second in the 1500m – 4.24.74, while Jamie Joseph, Oliver Humphrey and Tiago Garcez- Pereira came third in the 100m – 11.48, 100m hurdles- 16.46 and discus – 24m98 respectively.

SNHAC's men secured 3rd place in the latest virtual Scott's Travel 10k Midweek League Division 3 race. Chris Westcott's time of 38 minutes 40 seconds secured him 3rd individually, while Adam Searle (44:08) was the next quickest for the club. Paul Spicer (46:32), Trevor Mason (47:34), Paul Pickard (54:08), Mark Pinney (64:22) and Graham Spicer (72:23) were the other runners. The women's team of Jenny Cotter (48:08) and Chris Feely (50:52) were 6th. Overall, the club came 5th.

Race 4 will also be virtual and runs from 2nd to 15th August, any club member can submit a time for a 10k run during that period. The more entries the better we will score! Details will be with members very shortly.

A small team of four SNHAC Vets and two officials travelled to Harrow for the second league match of the season. Sandra Reed took part in the 200m, High Jump and Javelin, winning her 200m race and the High Jump, Andrea Westcott was in action in the High Jump and javelin, while husband Chris stretched his legs in an 800m race finishing in second place. Steve Mayfield had a busy evening with an early Long Jump competition and later competing in the 200m and Discus which were at the same time. Steve was beaten into second place in the last round of the Discus. Field Officials Dani Mainstone and Norma Harris also made the journey, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere at the match while officiating the Discus.

Six Stevenage and North Herts athletes travelled to Manchester over the weekend to represent their County Schools Associations at the Championships. Covid restrictions meant that each age group competed on a different day and travelled independently rather than as a team. It was great to see these Championships back on after missing a year and in a very different format. The top 16 selected in each event went ‘head to head’ with some events run as time trials as heats and finals couldn’t be completed on the same day.

Jessica Astill won her heat of the 300m in 40.13 en route to a Silver medal. She came up against strong competition in the final, running a personal best of 39.24 to narrowly miss out on first place.

The Seniors had been first up on the Friday. 400m hurdlers Ed Laws and Joel Evans ranked 8th and 9th going into the races ran in the second heat of this event with Joel finishing 4th and Ed 5th in 56.42 and 56.70. The result from the two races, saw them finish in 8th and 9th. The Inter age group competed on the Saturday. Shanumi Akinfenwa placed 12th in the high jump clearing 1m52, Aimie Taylor was 9th in the pole vault vaulting 3m15 and Will Galliford placed 8th in the 1500m steeplechase in 5.02.46.

Congratulations to all of our athletes who competed in Bedford yesterday. A massive thank you to all of those volunteers and parents who helped to run the teams and the events these matches cannot take place without your support. Very provisional results can be found here.