JERSEY Spartan Athletics Club commenced the outdoor season in style this past weekend, as 59 of their athletes took the Hampshire Athletics Track and Field Championships by storm.
The Caesarean outfit certainly made an impression at Downs Grange Sportsground, Basingstoke, as their weekend culminated in a whopping 31 medals, while the Islanders pulled off 51 personal-best (PB) efforts.
Headlining the local club’s weekend were the Island Games’ starring sprinters in Jamie Oldham and Steven Mackay, who made great strides towards their goals of Commonwealth Games qualification with impressive showings in the 100m and 200m events.
Mackay showed great improvement from his performances during the indoor season earlier this year to net an impressive time of 21.85 seconds – but, Oldham executed “a perfect race” to clock in an electric 21.21 seconds to pip him to the post and take the gold, while the former earned silver.
That time was a huge one for Oldham, as it was just a mere hundredth of a second off the Commonwealth Games qualification time.
This level didn’t drop off in the 100m competition, with the Caesarean duo stepping up again to take the one-two on the podium.
It was a momentous start for Mackay in the qualifying rounds, as his time of 10.65s edged ahead of Oldham’s by 0.01s to earn the day’s fastest time.
However, Oldham flipped the script to take another gold on the weekend
with a 10.8s sprint in the final, while Mackay’s 10.84s was enough for another silver medal.
Meanwhile, fellow Jerseyman Taylor Renouf narrowly missed out on making the podium a clean sweep for Jersey, as he placed fourth.
Mackay was brimming with pride following his performance, as he said: “The County Championships always act as a bit of a rust shake-off, but we’ve opened the season with incredibly fast times across the board – it’s the fastest I’ve ever ran at this stage in the season.
“It’s a shame I couldn’t defend my county titles – Jamie absolutely smashed it, he executed a perfect race and took things really well – but, I have to be proud. I’m just glad to see that all the discipline and hard work since the indoor season has come good and it’s a massive confidence boost. There’s no ceiling, – the times are going to continue getting lower.
“This competition shows just how good we are as a club, as everyone performed across the board – we proved to ourselves we’re here to compete.”
The blue vests weren’t short on stand-out performances over the weekend, with plenty of medal-winning outings and PB efforts in a wide array of competitions.
U16 sprinters Cole Selby and Scott Mackay showcased the great strength and depth coming up through the ranks, as the former netted silvers in the 300m and 200m contests, while the latter scored bronze medals in the 100m and 200m.
Ella Duarte shone brightly in a variety of events to continue her stellar form in the U16 category, starting off by making an impression in the 100m with another sub-13 second effort to net a PB and place fourth overall.
She impressed also on the field. Her 1.60m effort in the U16 girls’ high-jump event was enough to earn a gold medal, before scoring silver with 5.25m in the long jump.
A special mention must go to U16 athlete Dhan Pangali, who made the rest take notice with a third-placed effort in the high jump with a score of 1.65m –showing an immense improvement of more than 20cm so far this year.
Jersey Spartan Athletics Club medallists:
Under-14 Boys: Liam Dubras, Javelin (bronze)
Under-14 Girls: Bobbi Billington, Javelin (bronze); Alice Larnder, High Jump (bronze); Aleksandra Pinel, Discus (bronze)
Under-16 Boys: Cole Selby, 200m (silver), 300m (silver); Scott Mackay, 200m (bronze); Leo Gage, 3000m (gold); William Felton, 300m (bronze); Dhan Pangali, 100m Hurdles (bronze)
Under-16 Girls: Ella Duarte, High Jump (gold), Long Jump (silver); Bibiana Riva, 300m Hurdles (silver), 800m (bronze); Lula Burton, 3,000m (silver)
Under-18 Women: Layla Rowlands, 400m Hurdles (gold), Shot Put (silver); Thalia Lezzoni, 400m (gold)
Under-20 Men: Rory Bains, 200m (bronze), 400m (gold); Bradley Andrews-Callec, 5,000m (gold); Daniel Dubras, Javelin (gold)
Under-20 Women: Eliyah Schwartz, Discus (silver); Lucy Cohu, 200m (gold), 100m (bronze); Thalia Lezzoni, 400m (silver)
Senior Men: Jamie Oldham, 200m (gold), 100m (gold); Steven Mackay, 200m (silver), 100m (silver)
Senior Women: Rachel Leck, Discus (bronze)
