An excellent day of athletics at Luton saw the home team win for the first time this season. All the mens’ and boys’ teams won their respective groups and the girls and ladies teams all came a strong second. Steve Whyte in the shot and the U17 men’s relay team of Aaron Williams, Joe Steele, Wes Emmanuel and Andrew Gough achieved new league records.

Some new club records in the U13 girls for Jonelle Johnson Turner and the relay team, plus wins for Lisa Clarke in the A string hurdles and B string LJ. Strong performances, especially in the field events saw Luton to 2^nd place.

Well done to Monica Bramwell and Sarah Simpson (fresh from their English Schools exploits) who won their events easily, and the relay team, who won by an impressive margin. More good wins in this age group from Stephanie Chevalier (club record 13.0s for the 75m Hurdles) and Laura Mawer in the discus. Laura also improved her PB in the 800, she seems to improve with every race.

A strong ladies/U17 combined team had some notable sprint performances from Jo Winfield, 62.9s in the 400m (Club Record) Anne Folan (100m B winner) and Sarah Conway winner of the B 200. Also winners on the day were Tania Reynolds (300B) Keely Wilson (400B) Claire McMahon (1500m A) Jade Christie (Discus B) and the relay team.

Many club records were broken on the U13 and U15 boys. Matthew Barden (800m) Peter Benedickter (1500m) Ben Cruise (75m H) Bryn Reynolds and Matthew Barden again (HJ) and Ryan Coote in the Javelin. In-form Theo Williams ran club records in the U15 100 and 200, ably supported by B wins for Yussuf Khalid and newcomer Scott Lynch. Perry Howarth also returning from English schools, ran a superb 2m 7.3s in the 800. The club seem to have excellent strength in depth in our young middle distance runners. Harry Durkin beat his 80m Hurdles best again, and Daniel Alker again beat the club best in the HJ with 1.55m. Another good throw by Terry Paterson in the Hammer saw him beat his previous record by almost 6 metres. Both relay teams won impressively.

Our U17 men won all but 4 events in which they entered. The highlights were Joe Steele again pipping Andrew Gough in the combined 100 A and B race, Matt Sutton winning a 400/800m double and Tom Pool winning LJ and TJ. Andrew made up for his 100m defeat with equalling his 200Record of 23.3s and winning the B Shot. The relay team at last beat their previous best of 46.7, which they had run 3 times before.

More success in the SM, with Kyle Andrew achieving a sprint double. An almost clean sweep of the middle distance events saw a debut over 3K for Lance Croft. I somehow think he may stick to the 400 after that one. Really good to have Luke Beevor back running for Luton between his studies in the US. Gary Smith showed his class over the hurdles and LJ with David Hughes, another English Schools performer this year, winning the A LJ. Oliver Sweeney again cleared 2.00 metres in the HJ and 3 good wins for Steve Whyte in the throws, including clearing 60min the hammer and beating the shot league record. Dave Burrel also had 2 good wins in the B string Hammer and Shot. The relay team again came home first, ending a very successful day.