NECAA Pentathlon & NEMAA 5000m & 10000m champs 2015

[Sat 19th Sep]

The track & field season finally finished on a glorious sunny day at Monkton Stadium on the 19th September, with 7 Blyth athletes in action across the various competitions.

The first action was in the field, with Calum Storey beginning his senior men’s pentathlon and Steven French the V40 pentathlon, both in the discus. Calum launched the discus to 13.38m, whilst Steven managed 17.02m.

At the same time, the U13 pentathlon competition was getting under way, with Hannah Ross-Knight and Ellie Morris amongst the massive entry of 31 girls. Ellie ran in the top seeded heat and finished an excellent 3rd with a PB of 12.0s, whilst Hannah put in a competitive performance, finishing with 16.1s, just outside her best.

There was no time to rest for the girls as they immediately headed to the long jump. Both Hannah and Ellie set PB’s with their 2nd jumps, Hannah with 3.37m and Ellie with 4.09m.

Leanne Herron and Helen Morris were next up on track in the NEMAA 5000m championships. Leanne had intended to run in the 10000m; however a confusing entry form meant she was in fact entered for the 5000m. After a steady start, Leanne accelerated away to finish in 21:00.4, and secure silver in the V35 category. Helen is a stalwart of these championships, and added yet another medal with a V50 bronze.

Meanwhile, Steven & Calum were taking part in the long jump. Calum recorded a seasons best of 4.65m, whilst Steven demonstrated an excellent ‘hang’ technique with a 4.35m PB. At the same time, Hannah and Ellie were taking part in the high jump, with 2 high jump beds required to accommodate the huge number of athletes. Hannah struggled a little with her run up, but was jumping with great style and cleared 1.13m. After coming in at 1.20m, Ellie progressed well despite a few wobbles and entered into a stunning battle with Hannah Scarborough from Gateshead. The girls pushed each other to great heights, with Ellie’s best jump being 1.46m, whilst it took a Gateshead club record from Hannah (1.49m) to just outscore Ellie.

There was no time to relax as Steven and Calum prepared for their first track action in the 200m. In ideal sprinting conditions, both records PB’s. Steven ran 29.2s in his road shoes, whilst Calum lowered his PB with 26.8s.

The warm conditions may have been perfect for the pentahtletes, but certainly were far from ideal of the 10000m runners. Martin Scott put aside a potential wardrobe malfunction to line up on the start line alongside Steven, who was bravely doubling up with his Pentathlon competition. After running together early on, the conditions started to take their toll, and Martin pulled out a gap over Steven, despite suffering some visible issues with chafing. Martin finished as 3rd V40, in 42:01.9, whilst Steven was 4th in 42:26.2.

Whilst Steven was still battling around the 10000m, he should have been doing his practice throws in the Javelin. Luckily he finished his brutal 25 laps just in time to start the competition, and launched the spear out to 21.55m. Calum also threw well, with a best of 19.10m.

Ellie and Hannah were now faced with one of their weaker events, the shot put. However, lots of recent training meant that both girls went in with reasonable confidence. Hannah threw a PB of 4.48m, whilst Ellie, very conscious of the need to score big points to stay in medal contention, threw a PB of 6.13m on her final attempt. This left Ellie in 2nd place overall going into the final event, the 800m. Furious calculations were now taking place, and Ellie would need to run a big PB to win a medal after what was arguably her weakest event. Hannah was lying in 25th place, and ran a perfectly judged race before sprinting home in the final 100m to record to huge PB of 3:26.4s. Hannah’s final score of 1014pts was a big improvement over her previous best and she can be proud of her performance. Ellie was up against all her rivals in the final U13 800m race, and judged her race well, sticking close to her main competitor all the way round. She dug and sprinted to the line, finishing with a PB of 2:56.2s. This was enough to secure Ellie 3rd place in the NECAA championship, with a total of 2153pts. This score is in the top 15 in the UK this year, and would have won her the championship most years, but this year the standard was so exceptionally high.

Calum was next up on track, looking to finish his pentathlon in style. After a hard days work, 2:28.4 gave Calum 2nd in his race, and 3rd overall with 1403pts for the day.

Steven then put in a gritty run, although the 10000m he had ran just an hour before meant that the sprint finish just didn’t happen for him. 2:41.5s was still a great time, and Steven took V40 gold with 1608pts.

The day finished with medal presentations, and a chance to reflect on a dramatic day. Well done everyone.

Dan