The first Kent County Sportshall Athletics event took place at the St Johns Leisure Centre Tunbridge Wells last Sunday. There were a number of first time athletes taking part in the U/11 age group. Paddock Wood A.C had three U/11 teams taking part, plus some more senior athletes. In the Standing Long Jump Thomas Hendley (Team 2) jumped a PB of 1.78m, which put him in joint 4th place with Liberty Devine (Team 1) who also jumped 1.78m. Liberty did well in the Speed Bounce finishing in 2nd place with 51 bounces out of 31 competitors. Samantha Hockey (Team 1) came 4th in the Vertical Jump with 41cm and 9th in the Overhead Ball Throw with 6m. The rest of Team 1 was made up of Jacob Sharman (1.65 in the Long Jump) and Cameron Routledge whose best event was the Vertical Jump. In Team 2 first timer Sophie Tailon had a good result in the Vertical Jump with 43cm. Aidan Johnson, who has only been coming to the club for 2 weeks, competed in the Overhead Ball Throw and Vertical Jump. Henry Whysall helped boost the team’s points taking part in the Vertical Jump and Overhead Ball Throw. Mathew Exall (Team 3) had a great result in the Standing Long Jump, leaping 1.58m. Great friends Scarlett Bonner–Leney and Rosie Aylett both covered the Speedbounce and Joseph Shepheard, who was the 4th member of the team, had a good throw in the Overhead Ball competition and jumped 1.40m in the Standing Long Jump. Overall Paddock Wood 1 were 6th, Paddock Wood 2 were 12th and Paddock Wood 3 were 13th. In the older groups Alfie Stemp in his first year as a U/13 was 3rd in the Vertical Jump with 51cm, had the 3rd best run of the day for the 2 lap race (23.8s) and overall came 6th with 661 points. In the U/15 Girls Laura Wellbelove came 11th overall with 552points, her best event being the Speedbounce with 68. Robert Latchford in his first ever Sportshall came a creditable 5th overall with 638points. He jumped 6.17 in the Standing Triple Jump to earn 3rd place in that event. Georgia McCall won the U/17 Girls match with 718points. Her best event was the Speedbounce of 76 which gave her 179 points. Mason Doyle won his U/17 event with 896 points, setting a new County Record in the Standing Triple Jump with 8.46m metres. He ran the fastest 2 laps of the day in (20.7s).
Janet Duffin
