Last Sunday saw the first Sportshall competition of the season , which was held at the Swallows Leisure Centre Sittingbourne. Paddock Wood Athletic club had 4 teams competing in the U/11 events and 5 individuals in the older categories. Many were competing for the first time and all did exceptionally well.
Once again Harvey Fordham excelled in the Standing Triple Jump leaping 6.74m to win overall with new member Alex Gray jumping 5.54m after only having one practise session and finishing 4th. Jamie Dickson also did well in his first Sportshall jumping 5.18m coming 7th and Alex Stone 5.14m. Harvey also won the Ball Push with 8.50m with Holly Tapp coming 2nd with 7.25m. Freya Kirk-Martin was 9th with 6m. Dillon Dew finished 4th in the Vertical Jump with 42cm closely followed by Joe Stone and Lucy Tallon both with 39cm., Jamie Dickson 37cm, Liam O’Neil 35cm and John Janse 34cm. There were some good results in the Speed Bounce with Dillon Dew gaining 52 bounces, coming 2nd, with Martha Peachy getting 49 bounces as did Liam O’Neil. New to the event was Erin Clarke with 48 bounces. Chloe Exall jumped 4.79m in the Standing Triple Jump – her first time at Sportshall. Team A, which consisted of Harvey Fordham, Holly Tapp, Dillon Dew and Lucy Tallon came 2nd to win the Silver medals just 2 points behind the winners. Team B Alex Gray, Freya Kirk–Martin, Martha Peachy and Joe Stone finished 4th. Team C Liam O’Neil, Erin Clarke, Chloe Exall and Alex Stone were 5th and team D were Jamie Dickson and John Jannse who did exceedingly well in their first competitions, who were joined by 2 lads from Folkestone to finish 8th.
Mollie Dew in her first U/13 competition had a great Speed Bounce 74, and 45cm in the Vertical Jump which shows her to be a good all-rounder, just needing to get more experience in the Shot. The same went for Aiden O’Neil who got no putts in the Shot but did well in his 2-lap race (26.5s). Ted Peachy and Finlay Hollyer competed in the U15 age group, both for the first time in Sportshall. Both jumped 46cm in the Vertical Jump, but Fin just got the better of Ted in the Standing Long Jump with Fin jumping 2.04m and Ted 2.01m. They shared the team Gold with one boy from Swale and one from Thanet. U15 Freya Dickson, also in her first Sportshall competition, did well in her 2 lap race (26.2s) and jumped 62 in the Speed Bounce.
