ELEVEN Stratford Athletic Club members relished what was billed as an end of season track and field meeting at the Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton.
Wet conditions greeted athletes – nine juniors and two masters from Stratford – but competitors were in no mood to let the weather hinder their performances.
In the 100m, Seb Hillard ran a time of 14.26 seconds and he also jumped 4.53m in the long jump – just a few centimetres shy of his personal best.
Simon Curran ran 13.89 and David Jones ran a club record and personal best time of 17.18 in his first 100m race for more than six years.
There were some superb results for the junior members in the 800m, with the highlights being the performances of Caleb and Maisie-Joy Spriggs, both of whom ran personal bests.
Caleb’s time of 2:04.97 was almost a two-second improvement on his previous best time. He has knocked 12 seconds off where he was this time last year.
Maisie-Joy’s 2:34.71 improved her personal best time by some four seconds. She also competed in the 200m – knocking a second off her previous best time by running 29.74.
Niamh Hillard was just a quarter of a second off her personal best time in the 800m as she finished in 2:37.31.
Yellow and black vests dominated the start line in heat three, with three Stratford members lining up.
Under 13s Josh Harrison and Annie Silvers were competing in only their second official 800m.
Harrison ran a good race in the wet conditions, recording a time of 2:54.08, and Silvers was just 0.65 of a second off her personal best in running a superb race to record a time of 2:47.15.
David Jones ran 2:51.54, just an hour after competing in his 100m race.
In the 600m races the much-improved Sam Plumb recorded a time of 1:58.78 and Marijke Tear-Verweij ran 2:09.41.
In the 1,500m races the club’s sole representative was Alex Adams – the country’s tenth-ranked 1,500m runner this year in his age group.
Adams ran a magnificent time of 4:15.65. This was a little over two seconds off his personal best but in his ‘defence’ he has raced a lot of late.
Report compiled by David Jones.
