Under 15 Boys Team
The 2007 MYPC Athletics Meet - the sun shone, so did our athletes!
We had a great day out at the MYPC Athletics event. There were lots of great individual performances and the whole team showed a terrific sporting attitude, deservedly winning the Under 15 boys team trophy.
Turning up at the brand new, top class stadium in Uxbridge gave the team a buzz of excitement that lasted all day. There was an initial glitch with the stadium PA, so our athletes went out to get a feel of the track under their feet. There were quite a few butterflies whilst waiting for the competition to start. The brand new Pitshanger FC t-shirts were distributed and made it very easy to spot our athletes all afternoon.
Our sprinters were first on the track and Elliot and Mark Gwilt ran hard through their 100m heats to qualify for the final. Sam, unfortunately affected by a recurrence of a groin injury, couldn't hit top speed.
Next up were the 400m heats. Some great runs included a close finish between Mark Gwilt and Mark Cameron. Once the times had been compared, Charlie, Elliot, Lewis and both Marks had qualified for the final.
Out in the field events, Philip, Sam and James were competing against each other in the Discus competition. James showed that the practice he's been putting in at Perivale Athletics has been worth it. He consistently threw the furthest, to win our first gold medal. Sam came second, Philip third.
The 800m was the first final on the track and Mark Cameron ran a powerful race to come home first. William was four seconds behind to earn second place and James Mulvey a further two seconds behind for third.
At the same time Ahsanullah was competing in the javelin and overcame his early nervousness to throw 12.10m to win the silver medal.
The 100m finals came next, Mark's bronze medal and Elliot's 5th place were both fast runs against sprinters a full year older.
Because of the small fields for the u15 and u17 1500m races, they were run at the same time. Mark Cameron, at 13 years old, tracked the second placed runner from the U17 race all the way, staying on his shoulder for 3 laps. Mark led his race from start to finish to win the gold.
In the shot, Matt Lewis followed up his win last year with another gold. James Mulvey came 5th. The competition was strong here and Matt's throw of 8.46m was the big throw needed to win
Then, straight into the 400m finals with Mark C summoning up the energy for one more lap of the track. The two Marks once again had a great contest, with Mark C. showing first. All 4 Pitshanger runners came off the final bend close to each other, but Mark G's sprint speed took him to 2nd place just ahead of Mark C., closely followed by Charlie in 4th and Elliot in 5th.
The high jump contest was keenly fought with, Matt, Lewis and Ahsanullah leaping like salmon. Charlie jumped 1.35 to win the contest. Matt and Lewis both jumped 1.30, Matt winning bronze because he had fewer unsuccessful jumps. Charlie celebrated with one last jump, head butted the pole and suffered concussion.
Charlie was slated to run in the 4x100 relay but clearly couldn't take part. Sam took his place, running in the orange team with Ahsanullah, Matt and James. In the black team were Elliot, Mark G, William and Lewis. Both teams started well, Sam overcoming his earlier injury with a strong third leg. Matt brought the orange team home in 3rd and Elliot ran in the black team in for the silver medal.
The final event was the long jump, in which there were 10 athletes, 8 of them from the Pitshanger squad: Mark G., Philip, Lewis, William, Ahsanullah, Sam, Elliot and Charlie, determined to compete, despite still being wobbly from his accident. It was a hard fought contest, with the 1st round of jumps setting a good if not exceptional standard. Elliot William and Lewis all had longer 2nd jumps, but Mark leapt a massive 4.73m. This set the target for the final round. Everyone strained sinew to go further but Mark's 2nd jump wasn't beaten and he went away with the gold. William's last jump just beat Elliot into 3rd place, and Lewis and Sam tied for 4th place.
We won a medal in every event we entered and had 3 clean sweeps. But every performance gained points for the team trophy. and the presentation of the under15 boys club shield was celebrated enthusiastically by the whole team. Pitshanger u11s had been encouraged to come to the event by our team's success in previous years and they also won the team prize for their year. This joint success meant that Pitshanger FC capped the day with the overall boys team cup.
The afternoon was also important because it gave everyone a chance to take part, no matter their level of ability. The team spirit was great, the athletes encouraged and applauded their own team and athletes from other clubs, and showed enthusiasm in victory and grace in defeat.
100m: Mark G 13.09s bronze; Elliot 5th
400m: Mark G 64.12 silver; Mark C 64.43 bronze; Charlie 4th; Lewis 5th; Elliot 6th
800m: Mark C 2.32.3s gold; William 2.36s silver; James bronze 2.37s; Matt 4th; Philip 5th
1500m: Mark C gold 5.19.56
4x100m relay: Black: William, Elliot, Lewis, Mark G. 58.34s silver; Orange: James, Ahsanullah, Sam, Matt bronze
Discus: James,14.43m gold; Sam 12.39m 2nd; Philip 3rd
Javelin: Ahsanullah 12.10m silver
Shot: Matt 8.06m gold; James 4.46m 5th
High jump: Charlie 1.35m gold; Matt 1.30m bronze; Lewis 1.30m 4th; Ahsanullah 1.15m 6th
Long jump: Mark G 4.73m gold; William 4.16m silver; Elliot 4.02 bronze; Sam and Lewis 4th equal 3.75m; Charlie 6th 3.70m; Ahsanullah 7th 3.43m; Philip 9th 3.16m
We set ourselves the challenge of meeting the AAA national grade 4 standard. Did anyone achieve this? Matt's shot putt of 8.06m was close to the standard. Charlie was only 10cm from the standard in the high jump. However, the standards were met twice, both times by the same athlete. Mark G's time of 13.09 in the 100m was 0.1s inside the standard. And his long jump of 4.73m was 3 cm inside the standard.
Sarah Greenwood took some great photographs of the event.
Thanks to Mark Greenwood and Dave Grundy for organising the day so well for our team. Again the MYPC put on a great event, with the help of many volunteers.
***** Stop press Pitshanger FC Win the U13 boys section ******
Many thank to all 14 Pitshanger FC U11 boys who took part in the Athletics meeting today and thank you to the parents who came along to support. Most boys were able to enter at least 3 events and many getting experiences of events for the first time. The boys were competing in the U13 section and a lot of their competitors were one year older.
The weather and facilities were fantastic. I have listed a few notable performances but all the boys gave 100% and were a great credit to the club.
Pitshanger had there own Kelly Holmes - Duncan (Gold medals in the 800 and 1500 metres)
Bronze medals for Tobi (Shot put) and Dylan (Courageous run in the 1500 metres)
Bronze medals for the 2nd of the 3 Pitshanger relay teams - Jeremy, Daniel, Dylan and Duncan.
4th place for William (Shot put) and Cameron (Long Jump), Nadiesh (1500 metres)
Tom and Liam reached the finals of the 400metres, Armand and Nadiesh were finalists in the 100 metres.
Due to the efforts of all the boys Pitshanger FC gained more points than any other team in U13 boys section and have been presented with the Middlesex boys club shield which I will bring to training next Saturday!
Well done lads and you will have the opportunity to defend the title next year.
If any of the boys are interested doing more athletics the Ealing Southall & Middlesex Athletic Club meets six times a week at Perivale Track West London and caters for all ages.
Finally many thanks to Club Chairman Dave Grudy who co-ordinated the event on behalf of Pitshanger FC and officiated the high jump competition all afternoon. Plus thanks to Brian and Mark for their support.
