Team Kennet

On Saturday Team Kennet’s ladies and under 15 girls travelled to Bournemouth for our 3rd Southern Women’s League match of the season. The weather was absolutely sweltering and the journey there took over two hours due to the vast amount of traffic traveling to the coast.

We all arrived a bit hot and flustered and it was particularly hard for our throwers as they had to start competing immediately. However, despite this there were still some very strong individual performances,; notably from Leah Beechey who literally got out of the car, had no time to prepare, had to throw the shot straightaway, was only allowed one throw and yet still managed to win the B string with a throw of 7.57m. Emma Seymour also did extremely well in this event and claimed 4th place in the U15 A string with a personal best of 7.77m. Emma also performed very strongly in the discus and came away with 3rd place with a throw of 22.83m.

Our under 15 girls were very strong on the track too and there were some outstanding performances. Once again the performance of the day was from12 year old Georgina Bradford who totally outclassed the opposition in the 1500m. She ran a superb race to win in a new pb of 5:10.6, knocking almost 8 seconds off her previous pb and she is running against girls who are two years older than her. Georgina is now ranked 22nd in the UK for U13 girls 1500m. In the U15 girls 800m Chloe Scaplehorn ran a very good race in 2:44.8s, just one tenth of a second off her pb.

In the sprints Codie Burnett ran very strongly in both the A string 100m and 200m. She managed season’s bests in both events : 13.5s in the A string 100m ( 2nd) and 27.7s (3rd) in the A string 200m. Freya Eaton performed extremely well on the track too, winning the A string 75m hurdles in 12.2s, half a second clear of her nearest rival. Freya also won the B string 200m by half a second in a new pb of 28.0s. Freya was also 3rd in the B string long jump with a jump of 4.25m. And Leah Beechey ran a new pb in the 100m B string of 14.0s.

The girls relay team of Chloe Scaplehorn, Leah Beechey, Freya Eaton and Codie Burnett were superb and won their heat with ease in 55.7s.

Our U17 and senior squad was yet again severely depleted .. we had no sprinters or jumpers at all. But those of us who were there did our utmost to gain as many points as possible for the team by competing in as many events as we could. And we still managed to achieve some pbs. Katie Herbert ran a pb of 2:53.5 in the A string 800m to finish 8th and Jenny Eaton managed pbs in both the 800m ( 2:55.2) and the 1500m (5:54.2).
Both Alisha Bradford and Kim Wheeler performed well in the throws and both Vicki Bradford and Sue Seymour picked up valuable points in the 100m and long jump.

Overall we were only placed 9th which was disappointing. But we came away with many personal bests as well as a clutch of fist places and we all had a really enjoyable day in the sunshine.

After the competition, to round off the day ( and to avoid getting stuck in traffic on the way home!) we went to Boscombe beach for a swim in the sea.

Our next Southern Women’s League match is on Saturday 7th August at Salisbury and we are co hosting it, so we will need officials as well as athletes.

If any of you girls or ladies out there are interested in joining us for the next match then please speak to me.

Thank you

Jenny Eaton