On Sunday, Paddock Wood AC young athletes travelled to The Stour Centre Ashford for the Kent County Sportshall Athletics Championships. The club had four complete teams but because of illness could only field 3 out of 4 athletes for the fifth team. After winning last time the club’s first team had a lot stronger opposition with 29 U/11 teams taking part.
Harvey Fordham once again could not be beaten in the Standing Long Jump, jumping 2.16m; partner Holly Tapp jumped 1.82m putting the pair in 2nd position overall. However, they did win the trophies for the Overhead Ball throw with Harvey again wining with 9.75m and Holly 8.75m. The other pair in the team did the speed bounce with Dillon Dew jumping 54 bounces and Freya Kirk- Martin jumping 55. Dillon was 3rd in the Vertical jump with 50 cm, helping to keep the team up amongst the top 5. After the Hurdles race and Obstacle relay it bought the team up to 3rd to win the Bronze medals and the Cup for the Best Club in the competition. Team 4, with 2 newcomers to Sportshall, did exceptionally well coming 11th ahead of team 2 and 3. Hayden Velvick did well in the Speed Bounce with 55 bounces and came 8th out of 47 in the Standing Long Jump with 1.89m. Jamie Flinton partnered Hayden jumping 1.67m in the Standing Long Jump. Mathew Brown threw 6.50m in the Seated Overhead Ball Throw, John Janse jumped 40cm in the Vertical jump, and a good run in the flat race bought them up to 11th. Team 2 also had great individual results with Martha Peachy jumping 58 bounces in the Speed Bounce coming 4th, a PB, and Alex Stone doing 49 bounces. Joe Stone did 35cm in the Vertical Jump as did Erin Clarke and the team finished 20th. Team 3 had newcomer Joe Flinton in the Speed Bounce with 45 bounces – this was an excellent score but the winner jumped 60 bounces and the top 29 all jumped 50 or more. Ollie Jury joined him in the team in his first Sportshall jumping 43 bounces, Chloe Exall threw 4.25m in the Ball Throw and Alex Gray jumped 1.62m in the Standing Long Jump. Team 5 unfortunately only had 3 athletes so with someone going ill overnight and someone else dropping out on the Thursday, it meant that Justin Gregory had not got a partner but this not stop his enthusiasm jumping 1.67m in the Standing Long Jump and 43cm in the Vertical Jump. Twins Megan and Jake Frankel joined together with their best result coming in the Vertical Jump with Jake jumping 33cm and Megan 25cm. In the U/13 girls Poppy Jury won a Bronze Medal in the Standing Long Jump 1.83m and Kimberly Garcia won a Bronze in the 4 Lap Race (55.9s) both in their first Sportshall. Mollie Dew jumped 75 bounces in the Speed Bounce and 42cm in the Vertical Jump. James O’Gorman won a Silver medal in the U/15 boys Shot Putt with 9.89m and Finlay Hollyer Jumped a PB in the Standing Triple Jump 6.44m. The only U/15 girl competing was Erin Frankel who jumped 45cm in the Vertical Jump and did 78 bounces in the Speed Bounce.
Janet
