Rugby & Northampton Athletic Club’s youngsters made it six of the best at the Kettering Town Harriers-hosted Chairman’s Cup last weekend, when they took the team honours for the sixth consecutive year.
The event is exclusively for those in the under-11 and under-13 age groups, providing a platform for those who are inexperienced in competitive athletics and giving clubs the opportunity to enter athletes who have had limited competition opportunities. R&N made up nearly half the 263-strong field, with 114 athletes representing the club, and took the team competition by eight points over the hosts after compiling a total of 339. Corby picked up third spot with 177.
Amongst a fantastic team effort from R&N’s new and more experienced athletes was the stand-out performance from the under-11 girls relay team of Megan Lawes, Maisie Cramp, Zoe Gardner and Megan Burge, who ran the 4x100m in 61.4 seconds to set a new club record and pick up first place with a huge six-second margin.
In the 100m races, Elizabeth Truslove secured second in the under-13 girls with a time of 14.0, while Megan Burge (first, 15.9), Zoe Gardner (second, 16.0) and Lily Carlaw (fourth, 16.5) came close to making it an R&N clean-sweep of the top three positions in the under-11 girls. In the under-11 boys Lukas Ogunfeitimi took silver with a time of 15.5. Will Dean was the club’s highest finisher in the under-13 boys race as he ended sixth with 14.8. His team-mates Samuel Whittaker (14.8), Anesu Mumbure (14.9), Alfie Bowers (15.0) and Jacob Billis (15.0) were all close behind.
Truslove’s time of 29.6 saw her narrowly miss the podium in the under-13 girls 200m, ahead of team-mate Mary Betham-Green, who was eighth in 31.1. Samuel Whittaker (30.0) and Anesu Mumbure (30.2) finished fifth and sixth respectively in the under-13 boys. Lewis Gurney was also a fifth-placed finisher in the under-11 boys thanks to a time 33.5. Club-mate Joshua Farrell was 0.7 seconds back in seventh, while times of 34.1 and 34.4 saw Megan Lawes and Lily Carlaw finished third and fourth respectively in the girls event.
Prabhdeep Bassan secured first place in the 800m mixed category race thanks to a run of 2.01.9, which followed a host of second places for the club across the eight races. Claudia Searle (under-11 girls, 2.51.4), Noah Bennett (under-11 boys, 2.44.7), Abigail Pearce (under-13 girls, 2.37.5), Alfie Bowers (mixed; under-13 boys, 2.07.0), Joe Baker (mixed; under-13 boys, 2.02.1) were all runners-up in their respective races.
In the high jump, Noah Bennett (fifth, 1.05) finished just ahead of team-mate Finlay Heard (seventh, 1.05) in the under-11 boys while Zoe Gardner (1.23m) pipped Megan Palmer (1.10m) to first in the under-11 girls. Elizabeth Truslove (1.30m) and Iola Grant (1.25m) took second and third respectively in the under-13 girls, while Cian Hutton (1.25m) and Eoin Hutton (1.2m) finished third and fourth in the under-13 boys.
Rugby & Northampton took the top spot in both under-13 javelin events. Ben Gidley (30.86m) won by a huge margin over team-mate Jake Ponting (19.49m) and Abigail Pearce (24.05m) was six meters ahead of Abigail Ward (18.3m).
The long jump saw further success for R&N as Alfie Bowers (under-13 boys, 4.31m), Adele Blenkinsop (under-13 girls, 3.89m) and Zoe Gardner (under-11 girls, 3.35m) all took top spot. Ella Watford (3.73m) and Amelia Tutt (3.69m) ensured a clean-sweep for R&N in the under-13 girls, while Megan Burge (3.24m) took silver behind Gardner in the under-11 girls. Marc Marsden (fourth, 3.59m) and Joshua Farrell (fifth, 3.57m) were the club’s highest finishers in the under-11 boys.
Jessica Roberts took first place in the under-11 girls vortex with a distance of 22.56m, while Aidan O’Brien (30.1m) was a little over three meters from doing the same in the boys event, as he settled for silver.
While the under-11 girls ran their way to gold, the rest of the R&N 4x100m relay A teams were beaten in to second place, with the under-11 boys (64.2), under-13 girls (57.9) and under-13 boys (57.1) all picking up silver.
Taking place at the same time as the Chairman’s Cup was the Northants Athletics Association One Mile Championship. Adam Searle sneaked in at under five minutes to win race one in a time of 4.59.9. Competing as an under-15, Searle was in the youngest age group to take part in the race, going up against females of all ages. Team-mates Williams McMurtrie (Under-15 boys, sixth, 5.40.6) and Angela Copson (Veteran Women’s, 12th, 6.17.4) were also in the field, taking bronze and silver in their respective age categories. Pete Currington just beat Searle’s time in race two, finishing fourth (third in the senior men) in a time of 4.50.0.
Elsewhere, R&N athletes Eleanor Broome (Intermediate Girls long Jump, 5.59m) and Tom Jasper (Junior Boys 300m, 36.51) both picked up bronze medals from the English Schools Championships, which was taking place at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham. The pair were representing Northamptonshire Schools and were amongst 18 R&N athletes representing either Northants, Warwickshire or Oxfordshire.
