Relay Records Tumble

The Club's sprinters kept up their reputation for record-breaking performances at the Surrey Track Relays at Carshalton on 3/4 September. This year the meeting, which also incorporates the Combined, Steeplechase and Walks Championships, was held earlier than usual, to avoid a clash with the final day of the Southern Athletics League.

The U20 Men’s 4 x 100m team of Jaleel Roper, Dominic Smith-Fray, Marcus Gayle and Freddie Arkell (below) set a new Championship Record record of 42.71; and not to be outdone, the U15 Boys (Javon Blake, Chezray Cammock, Joshua Sarkodee and Elliott Turbin), also set a Championship Record in the 4 x 300m relay, as well as taking gold in the 4 x 400m.

Omari Koroma, Khalid Ali, Markos Schuchinsky and Josh Martin clinched the gold in the U17M 4 x 100m, with U15 Javon replacing Khalid to double the gold tally in the 4 x 400m.

The U13 Girls team of Halili and Keiwan Waikwa, Isabelle Sparkes and Freya McAndie took the silver medal in the 4 x 200m Relay, matched by the U13 Boys team  of  Oliver Mealor, Theo Creed, Harry Allen and Thomas Whorton.

It was a busy weekend for Thomas, as he also came away with the U13 Boys Pentathlon title. 'He did really well to win the gold medal', says Mark Andrews, whose coaching of multi-events in collaboration with distance coaches Anne Hegvold and Andrew Davies is paying dividends. 'He was a little disappointed with his high jump – even though it was his first completion – but a great run in the 800m (his specialist event) moved him back into the lead'.

In the U17 Women's event Ariana Shala took the silver medal, which, says Mark 'was particularly impressive as she only got back from holiday at 4am on the Saturday morning before the start of the heptathlon.

'It was the first combined events competition for the six juniors and everyone gained great experience', he believes. 'In the U13 Girls event Florence Foster was the highest HW finisher in fifth, with Freya (McAndie) and Beatrice (Eminson) doing really well too, along with Visne (Bariman) in the U15 Girls event (Visne also ran in the relays the previous day). All achieved PBs across the events and the U13s are all in the first year of their age group so they can build on this next season'.

In the Senior events Heather Letley secured the Heptathlon title. 'She wasn't too far down on her personal best overall and was pleased to complete the heptathlon within a year of the birth of her daughter!', says Mark, who took the Senior Men's Decathlon title despite carrying 'a pretty bad calf/lower leg injury which meant I could barely jog the 100m, 400m, 110mH and 1500m! 'Thankfully', he says, 'I managed to do well enough in the field events to get (and stay) ahead of the two Croydon athletes to win!'

As always at the end of a long and crowded summer season some events were sparsely populated. None more so than the U17 Men's steeplechase in which Tom Davies found himself the lone competitor for his debut in the event, which he hopes to add to his middle distance repertoire, having notched up PBs in the1500m, Mile and 3000m this season. Nevertheless he enjoyed himself, and was rewarded with a gold medal!

Below, HW coach and decathlete Mark Andrews, with his band of multi-eventers.