42nd Club Newsletter April 2009 (incorporating the 52nd Under 11 Newsletter)

The 1st Cheshire League Meeting took place on a gloriously sunny day at Deeside on Sunday 19^th April.

The feeling at the start of the year was that our Under 11 team was not as strong as in previous years due to the fact that most of the team had never previously competed and hence we were desperately short of experience. In fact of the 24 athletes who competed only 6 had previously represented the club.

Our fears were unfounded as the team performed above all expectations winning the competition by scoring 113 points out of a possible 120 and winning by 16 points from a strong West Cheshire team.

The first event (75m girls) could not have been closer with 3 teams tying for first place after the first 3 races. That meant that the maximum 12 points would go to the team that won the "D" race. As Olivia Bailey ran her first ever race she had no idea that all rested on her performance but she ran a great race to win by a couple of metres. Beth Johnson produced a run of 11.7 secs to become the 8^th = Best Salford Mets Under 11 athlete of all time.

The boys 75m was a bit of a procession with all 4 of our scoring athletes winning for another maximum points haul. Thomas Wiseman produced the best performance winning in 11.0 secs to become the 3^rd= Best Salford Mets Under 11 athlete of all time.

Two more maximum points came in the long jumps with Emma Wright (3.39m) having the best jump of the day to become the 10^th Best Salford Mets Under 11 athlete of all time. Thomas Wiseman continued his winning streak with a 3.63m jump to become the 7^th Best Salford Mets Under 11 athlete of all time.

Our maximum points run continued in the 600m with Emily Hopkinson, Jennifer Hargreaves and Gabrielle Wiseman all having Gold Achievement Award runs. Interestingly Gabrielle was a non counter so may well be a counter at the next meeting. It came as no surprise to see Thomas Wiseman win the 600m in an incredible time of 1.49.6 to win by 50 metres. What was a surprise was to see Charlie Clarke, Ben Moseley and James Axon all produce Gold standard performances and again James did this as a non counter.

For the first time in the day we dropped points in the Javelin, 3 in total however had one of our non counters (Jennifer Hargreaves) been counting we would have been closer to maximum points as she threw a massive 14.12m (7^th Best Salford Mets Under 11 athlete of all time) but this performance was eclipsed by Ben Moseley’s 2^nd Best Salford Mets Under 11 athlete of all time throw of 18.25m.

The results of the 75m meant the girls relay was going to be a close run affair and this proved to be the case with our girls being edged into 3^rd place, although their time was better than they had run in training so it was another excellent performance. I think we need to work on their batten changes though. As expected the boys won their relay in a time that was only 2 secs outside the club record and this without the benefit of even one practice run in training.

When all the result have been analysed I am pleased to announce that Chloe Tatum has now achieved a Bronze Achievement Award, Emily Hopkinson & Jonathan Parry, Silver, and Thomas Wiseman only our 2^nd ever Platinum winner.

Well done to the whole team. In total you achieved 53 Personal Bests.

Not to be out done our older athletes also put in some great performances resulting in the females winning their competition and the males finishing 5^th. When the two were added our older athletes also managed to win overall, rounding off a fantastic day.

Debbie does however have a plea to make. Whilst the Male Under 13 team was full she is desperately short of athletes especially at Under 15 and Under 17. We have enough of these athletes attending training sessions so please make the effort to compete and support your club.

The next Cheshire League meeting will be held at Crewe on 12 July. Full directions will appear on the next newsletter but for those interested in seeing where the track is please use the attached link to see a map.

If there are any other Under 11’s who wish to compete please see Peter, Tony, Scott or Eddie. Please note that you must currently be in Year 4 or 5 to be eligible to compete.

Before the next Cheshire League meeting our older athletes have Young Athletes League commitments on 17 May , (at Salford) 31 May and 21 June (and finally 19 July). We need a lot of athletes for these meetings and hence if you can compete please see Mike Lucas (females) or Debbie Hulme (males). Debbie in particular is keen to increase the number of athletes she has available.