This year the Surrey County and the Aviva National Indoor Championships were unfortunately on the same weekend. On the plus side all our athletes were active, with the track men in Birmingham and the majority of throwers at Sutton Arena.
The team at the Nationals had mixed fortunes and although all performed well, being at the young end of the age group was a significant factor, especially at Under 17 level. New boys Daniel Boateng and Kertis Beswick both fell foul of nerves in the big arena for the first time. Daniel had a great start in his 60m heat and was well placed to qualify for the semi-finals when he made the mistake of looking across at his competitors. This loss of concentration caused him to change gear and the opposition pulled away. He nevertheless, ran a time that indicated that there is more to come.Kertis competed in the 60m Hurdles. He looked sharp in warm up, started well and went over the first hurdle in second place, after which anxiety and nerves somehow contrived to have him dipping for the line with seven hurdles to go. The consequent loss of form and balance meant no chance of proceeding to the next round. His finishing time was creditable considering that it was poor race.
200m man Taiwo Kamoju also had a rare outing in the 60m. Taiwo went from a qualifying time of 7.40 before the meeting to 7.32 in his heat and 7.29 in his semi – final. Taiwo was only one finishing place off the final, in fact in the other semi, he would have made the final. Bad luck dogged him however, when he fell ill overnight and could not contest his main event on the Sunday.
We all hoped that Femi Agbetoyin would make the 800m final. Femi performed well, he set another PB of 2min 2.9secs, but against four Year 11 boys who had already run under 2 minutes, that was not enough to make the final. His time will come and Femi will go under the 2 minute barrier this year.
In the field, Joshua Thompson competed in the Under 17 Triple Jump. He too was in uncharted territory, competing in his first national competition. He rose to the challenge and jumped a new personal best of 12m80 to finish 8th in a field that included all the seasons top boys.
Meanwhile, the throwers were in action at the Surrey Championships. Omar Reid won his first County medal with an excellent Bronze and his sister Tamara went one better with Silver. Both were competing in the Under 17 Shot Putt. On the same day, Kyle Troung-Clarke bettered that by becoming Surrey Under 15 Shot Champion for the first time.
Pride of place at the weekend went to Iyani and Simi Obi-Adewole. Showing amazing strength of character and strength of arm at a difficult time, Iyani became Surrey Under 17 Shot Champion for the first time. Competing at exactly the same time, but 140 miles away, her big, little brother won a magnificent Bronze medal at the National Championships.
I was as ever, hugely proud of the way our athletes competed and conducted themselves while they were away. They were a credit to their families and to the School. The way that the throwers pulled together at Sutton without me at their side impressed me too. It says much about the quality of the young men and women on our programme and in our school.
S Knight (Team coach)