Unaccountably, the team’s chartered aircraft returned to the Island on Saturday after having offloaded only half of their kit in Southampton.
Only through the goodwill of the organisers and also Guernsey athletes, who lent an assortment of spikes and kit, were Spartans able to compete in the early events.Things could hardly have improved more dramatically and the 30 championship titles were 11 more than the next most successful club, the renowned Aldershot, Farnham & District.
Their medals, however, came mostly in the middle and long-distance events, while Jersey’s successes were spread across the board and through a wide section of age groups.Amy Dingle was in danger of having to pay excess baggage on the return journey as she collected a total of five U13 medals, including a championship record of 11.90s in the 70m hurdles.
Her friendly rivalry with Jenna Murphy is helping drive both girls onwards, and both equalled the championship record of 1.40m in placing first and third respectively in the high jump.
Murphy took her revenge by edging Dingle into second place in the long jump.High jumping is proving a micro-centre of excellence in Jersey at present.
There were several remarkable performances with Simon Phelan finally overhauling the long-standing senior Island record of Peter Brookes with a jump of 2.03m.
Jason Fox (1.78m) and Sophie Twinam (1.55m) both produced big PBs in winning their events and Ross Jeffs produced a championship best performance in winning his event at 1.50m.
Peter Rothwell weighed in with a silver.The throwers did exactly as expected with Lauren Thérin not stretched in picking up three golds in the U20 competition – had she taken part in the senior events she would have medalled in all three also.Catarina Hallden claimed the only medal by a Jersey senior woman while 14-year-old Jamie Stevenson comfortably claimed three golds and is looking towards greater challenges later in the summer.Rebecca Duquemin claimed two golds while younger brother Zane added a hurdles bronze to his two throws medals.
The enthusiastic Sam Lee won a discus gold in the U17 womens’ competition as did Eleanor Humphrey in the U13 girls’ competition.
Beckie Slater and Emma McCarthy were a class apart in the U15 girls’ javelin while one of the youngest athletes, Kathryn Rothwell, was delighted to take home two throwing medals.Kieran Palmer won the only senior title, the 200m, in 22.38s, while Peter Irving had to settle for silver in both the long and short hurdles.
Stephen Prosser would have benefited by mixing it with the seniors, but instead picked up gold and silver in the U17 men’s sprints.U15 Rory Forrest had an excellent meet and was in line for a fourth medal before picking up what could be a nasty Achilles injury.Paul Dingle, Kamela Monks, Steph Le Cornu and Courtney Williams all produced medal-winning performances in long and triple jump.The fledgling middle-distance squad had a hard time of it with the best run coming from Nicola Milner who was just outside the medals in the U13 girls’ 1500m.Amongst the successes there were inevitably some tears of disappointment although they were often eased by PBs.
Track and field can be very cruel at times, but the overall outlook for local athletics has rarely, if ever, been brighter.The performances of the athletes is given in more detail on www.hants.gov.uk/athletics.
