York Open - Sunday 6th June 2010

Images courtesy of Neil Pattison and Mal (Sam) Gillatt, Report courtesy of Matt Hammond

Scunthorpe Youngsters Hammer York

The weekend saw a small band of Scunthorpe venture up to York to take part in the Ingram Solicitors league at Huntingdon stadium the home of York City Knights rugby league team. The league is a series of 4 matches where individuals earn points at each match for an overall individual championship.

With each age group taking part at the same time Club Hammer coach Matt HAMMOND took advantage to take two throwers with him so they could all compete at the same time and he could legitimately coach from the centre of the arena. This proved to be a very successful ploy with Anthony GILLATT and Jacob HAMMOND both setting personal bests in the under 15 boy’s event. Anthony finished second in a an exciting competition which saw him only getting piped in the very last round and Jacob finished third in his very first attempt at the event. Although Matt still has the bragging rights having recorded a distance further than both his young charges, but with him doing more coaching than competing these days it wont be long before they both catch him up. With the event now seeing both boys ranked in the top 60 in the country. Unfortunately during the hammer which was the first event of the day the heavens opened and all track events were suspended for 15 minutes whilst the rain eased. This made it difficult for any further PB’S during the day. Jacob was to continue his multi events ambition coming 6th in the 80m Hurdles as he experiments with a new stride pattern. Both boys then contested the discus but struggled with a very wet slippy circle and were below their best finishing 5th and 7th. Anthony then rounded the day off with a 3rd in the Javelin. Joining them in the under 15 age group was Alex Merrills who himself was searching to break 60 seconds in the 400m unfortunately the conditions made that difficult and he missed his target when finishing third. Although he did earn a new best when finishing third in the shot putt. Another thrower making the trip was Kate PATTISON who had a productive day winning both the discus and the shot although conditions again meant she was just below her best in both events. Another athlete frustrated by the conditions was Stephanie O’CONNOR who has been chasing the English schools Finals qualifying time for several weeks over 200m. She did exceptionally well to finish just outside her best when winning both events and it was obvious on a warm day with a back wind she would have gone a lot faster. Hopefully the coming weeks will see her race in the perfect conditions. The final competitor was 17 year old Bethan Hammond who had to compete in the senior events but still saw her as the only competitor in the 800m and 100m hurdles. Both were run as a time trial on her own and she did well again to finish only just behind her best times.