Georgina flying the flag for Scunthorpe

It was left to Georgina O’Connor to fly the flag for Scunthorpe and District at the Aviva UK indoor multi events championships following the withdrawal of Jacob Hammond due to injury. The event was held at Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport which is the home of the world champion Multi eventer Jessica ENNIS and has become a second home for many Scunthorpe Athletes who have trained and competed throughout the winter at the venue.

Georgina was competing in the under 17 women’s Pentathlon. The pentathlon involves gaining points for each performance in 5 different events; therefore the aim is to be as close to your personal best in each event. This is exactly what Georgina achieved with a day of personal bests. She got off to the perfect start when she set a best in the very first event the 60m hurdles in 10.27 sec. Next was the high jump which has caused Georgina problems in the past when she has failed to clear any height, this time she was to set another personal best of 1.27m. Georgina then went to the shot putt where she finally started to live up to her potential in this event with another best of 8.15m. Although starting to tire Georgina set yet another best of 4.51m beating her best that had stood for 3 years. After such a hectic day Georgina can be forgiven for not been able to set a best in the final event the 800m were she ran 2.57. It was no surprise after such a string of great performances that she also finished with a best point score of 2268 points which saw her finish 21st overall and 9th in the Northern Counties.

Next Scunthorpe stars in the making

Report by Matt Hammond

Whilst their elder club mates were taking part in the Northern Indoor Championships at the indoor Arena at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield Mitchell BAILES and Adam HARRISON were also competing at Sheffield in a nearby Sports hall representing South Humberside in the Aviva under 11’s Sports hall Athletics challenge.

Sports hall Athletics was created in the United Kingdom by George Bunner in 1976 to introduce young people to the joy of athletics, he encouraged them with inventions such as the Reversaboard which enabled athletes to strike and turn in the same movement and run in the opposite direction. Soon most athletic events were made possible within a sports hall environment. Sports hall Athletics emphasises the importance of team competition, fair play and the fact that taking part and trying your hardest is more important than winning. Sports hall is an activity that can bring together young people across the globe in energetic competition and lasting friendship.

The two Scunthorpe youngsters found themselves competing against teams from North Humberside, North and South Yorkshire. In events designed to simulate running, throwing and jumping events. The South Humberside team finished the event in 4^th place following a keenly fought and enjoyable event. Hopefully in the future we will see Mitchell and Adam transfer their talents to the nearby indoor arena and add to the growing number of young stars at Scunthorpe.

Rachel storms to first Northern title

EIS Sheffield - 16th/17th January 2010

Report by Matt Hammond

This weekend saw Scunthorpe and District senior and under 20 athletes descend on Sheffield for the Northern Indoor championships the first major championship of the indoor season. Despite Quibell Park been out of action for over 4 weeks because of the bad weather the athletes were able to show they have still been keeping their training going with some excellent performances. They also had the added bonus of competing alongside Jessica ENNIS, who was using the championships as a warm up for the World Indoor championships in March.

Leading the way for Scunthorpe was Rachel ROBINSON who won her first Northern Indoor championships when contesting the Under 20’s ladies 1500m. Rachel set off shoulder to shoulder with an athlete from Durham. They swapped the lead for the first few laps before Rachel took the race by the scruff of the neck after about 800m and ran away from her competitor to win by over 10 seconds. Rachel who has had a late start to the indoor season has been struggling with her form but showed her natural ability to win even when not at her best. Hopefully a period of good training and racing will see her feature over the cross country during the rest of the winter.

Not to be outdone triple jumper Josh BONES also appeared on the medal rostrum although he was slightly disappointed to only finish in 3^rd place in the under 20 men’s triple jump. Josh was the defending champion, but in an event which is notorious for putting great strains on the legs and ankles, an old injury to his foot was to flare up again during warm up. Despite this Josh showed great character when after 2 no jumps he came out in the third round and was able to put the pain behind him to jump into 3^rd place. This was to be his only legal effort and had to pull out of the competition. Like Rachel it is testimony to his ability that he was able to pull out one jump when injured to take a medal.

Day 1 of the championships was to see many of the senior team who competed so well to get Scunthorpe promoted in the Northern league last year try their luck in the individual events. The first event of the day the 60m hurdles had seen Matthew SHAW make his first appearance indoors this year. Matt who has his eyes firmly on the club 110m hurdles record had a slightly disappointing performance after clipping too many hurdles in his heat and didn’t make the final, but the ever confident Matt says his training has been going well and his aim may well be achievable this year. Also competing were Simon POPE and Leo SMITH in the senior 400m. This was to be an unofficial club championship with both runners been drawn in the same heat. It was to be Leo who took the honors finishing 3rd to Simons 5^th however Leo was out dipped on the line which cost him a place in the final.

Next on was Gavin MARSHALL from the road running section who has had little experience of running on an outdoor track let alone indoors when he entered the senior men’s 3,000m, Gavin set off at an excellent pace and was still near the front of the field at the half way mark but fell away in the latter part of the race. Afterwards Gav admitted he had felt good at first but as the race went on he found it difficult to breath in the air conditioned atmosphere in the arena. However Gavin showed he has a great chance of competing at a high level when he gets used to the track and conditions of indoor running

The busiest athlete of the championships was to be Daniel HARMES who competed in the Shot and 400m on the first day and 200m on the second day. Daniel started the day off well with a personal best in the shot putt ,where he putt nearly a metre further than he managed at the multi events the previous weekend. Next was the 400m where Dan was slightly disappointed to run out of steam and finish 5^th in his heat. He however made up for this the next day when he ran an excellent 200m heat to make the semi finals and ran close to his personal best.

The athletes now face the decision of whether to carry on with the indoor season which sees further events at Birmingham and Manchester or return to the hard winter training to prepare for the summer track season.

Kate takes home first Northern medal

EIS Sheffield - 16th/17th January 2010

Report by Matt Hammond

This weekend saw Scunthorpe youngsters have another chance to compete at the world class facilities at the English Institute of Sport when they contested the Northern Indoor championships. The championships saw the cream of the northern counties stretching from Derbyshire up to Scotland descend on Sheffield for two days of competition. The youngsters were also treated to the appearance of Jessica ENNIS the world heptathlon champion who contested several events in the senior competition.

Day one saw Kate PATTISON take away a silver medal in the under 15 girls shot putt. Kate has only just moved up to the under 15 girls age group which meant she got her first chance to contest a Northern championships and she didn’t disappoint. As well as contending with older competitors Kate also faced the challenge of throwing a heavier Shot, but she proved her training has been going well when in her first competition she set a personal best and nearly matched her best distance from last summer with the lighter implement. Kate was the only competitor to make steady progress throughout the competition and went from fourth after the first round to take silver with a best putt of 9.13m. This ranks her in the top 15 in the country indoors this year. Hopefully next year Kate can go one step better and take her first Northern title.

Next on was Ellie STANDERLINE another competitor faced with her first year in the under 15 age group. Ellie had been showing good early season form indoors when competing in the open meetings, but was unable to carry on this form and struggled in both the 60m and long jump failing to make the final of either. Ellie hasn’t been helped by the recent bad weather which has seen Quibell park track closed for nearly a month and Ellie struggling to complete her speed training.

The final competitors were two members of Dave Harmes multi events group that have been using the facilities at Sheffield whilst Quibell Park has been out of action. First was Freya BRADSHAW in the 300m, Freya is yet another athlete at the bottom of her age group the under 17 women. Although she did not make the final she managed an excellent 4^th place in her heat knocking over a second off her best time. Hopefully this will lead to bigger and better things during the outdoor season and is maybe a hint that Freya’s athletic future lies in the 400m. The second member was Jacob HAMMOND who continued his Multi events education by contesting 5 events over the two days. Day one saw yet more personal bests for Jacob who has shown steady progress during the winter. He started by finishing 7^th in the 60m hurdles in a new personal best, then 8^th in the long jump before rounding off the first day with a new best and 4^th place in the shot.

Day two saw Ashley WREN trying to defend the title he won last year in the u17 boys long jump. Ashley who hasn’t yet achieved the distance he managed last year after suffering an hamstring injury still performed well gradually improving throughout the competition and finishing with a final jump of 6.47m. This was good enough for 2^nd place on the day and although he was slightly disappointed a period of uninterrupted training will see him regain his form and push onto his next target the 7m barrier.

Day two also saw another good performance in the shot events by a Scunthorpe athlete. This time it was Ellica BONES in the under 17 girls shot, Ellica has made steady progress this winter and is yet another athlete who has moved up an age group, She set another personal best for 8^th place and would have progressed further but for a narrow no throw with her final effort. The 200m saw Freya BRADSHAW and Jacob HAMMOND engage in a battle of the training partners. Although not in the same race they were both looking to out do the other with the quickest time. This time it was Jacob who, when finishing 4^th in his heat in a new personal best which was a slightly faster time than Freya who also finished 4^th in her heat. 

The final performance on day 2 was Jacob’s 5^th event in 2 days and saw his 4^th personal best in the 800m. Jacob managed to knock a huge 6 seconds off his best time and shows that combining Football and athletics training is proving successful at this time.

Dan gets helping hand from former Olympic star

Report by Matt Hammond

Following the cancellation of the County Cross Country championships it was left to Dan HARMES to get 2010 off to a good start for Scunthorpe and district athletics club,when he managed to beat the weather competing over 2 days in the UK and Northern indoor multi events championships held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Dan who is making his name as a decathlete at the club was contesting his first multi events competition since he started travelling to Sheffield with his father and clubs multi events coach Dave HARMES to get extra training and technique advice from former Olympic decathlete star Alex Kruger.

Dan competed in the under 20’s Heptathlon in a field that featured many junior internationals and saw athletes travel as far as Glasgow and Windsor to compete. The heptathlon consists of 7 events suited to indoor competition. Athletes are awarded points for their performance in each event, so competitors try to get as close to their best in each event in order to score the maximum points.

First up was the 60m in which Dan was just outside his best time and recorded the 13th fastest time of the day. Next was the long jump with Dan again jumping just below his best but maintained his 13th place. The shot was to prove the only disappointing event for Dan when he could only record 9.14m over a metre down on his best. The first day was then rounded off with the pole vault where Dan achieved a personal best of 2.80m, reward for the work he has been putting in travelling to Sheffield during the winter in order to vault inside. At the end of the first day Dan was lying in 14th place overall.

The second day was opened with the 60m hurdles and Dan was to achieve a big personal best again just reward for the efforts he has made to improve his technique during the winter. The next event was the high jump which again saw Dan just below his best. As always the multi events athletes would finish with a longer track event which most of them dread. Dan has made efforts to improve his endurance this winter training with younger athletes who have moved to the multi events squad from the endurance group. This proved to pay dividends when he recorded a big personal best in the 1000m. This helped him to 12th place overall in the UK and 5th place in the Northern counties section.

After the event Dan said ‘ I was pleased with the two days, the pole vault was a best and I think I can go higher still , I also think there is more to come in the hurdles as my technique in the race wasn’t as good as the warm up’

Dan went on to say ‘It was great to have Alex there offering advice and pushing me on , my aim for the season is to peak for the British university championships and push my personal bests a lot further’

Also Competing at Sheffield was former Scunthorpe athlete Kevin SEMPERS who now competes for Brunel University and the Trafford club in Manchester. Kevin had a good two days and only missed out on the UK title finishing second just 9 points behind the winner. His performances included an excellent 2.05m in his speciality event the high jump.