Kyle Ennis smashes 100m & 200m Club Records
Rugby & Northampton AC were faced with their busiest ever day of Senior Athletics on Saturday when they needed to turn out Men’s & Women’s National League teams at 2 different venues as well as a Midland League team for a home fixture in Rugby. As a result, none of the teams were at full strength but each acquitted themselves well and produced a string of fine individual & team performances. The highlight of the day came at Yeovil where Kyle Ennis recorded PB’s and new club records of 10.37 & 20.88secs in the 100 & 200m races. His 200m time currently ranks him 10th in the UK this year. He also featured in the club’s winning 4 x 100m team. Another club record fell at Rugby when Fenton Bishop-Timmings warmed up for this weekend’s English Schools Championship with a throw of 55.68m in the Javelin to record a new U20 club record. This also lifts him to 12th in the UK U20 rankings this year.
The Men’s National League team made the long journey to Yeovil and being short of Throwers & Distance runners had a tough day of competition, finally finishing 8th. In addition to Ennis the best result came in the 400m Hurdles where Alfie Bowers was 2nd and Tom Saunders won the B race. Saunders, along with Charlie Barker and Harry Salt had a busy day covering a range of jumps and throws whilst Jaime Nalus & Adel Sesay covered the B string sprints.
In Women’s National League at Kingston the team were missing their 3 winners from the first match, along with others who were on holiday, and so struggled to achieve any victories. On the day they finished 7th. Most of the team completed their maximum allowance of 3 events with Hayley Murray being the top points scorer with 2nd in the Hammer along with two B string 3rd places in the Shot and Javelin. Annabelle Pask also claimed 2nd in the 400m Hurdles as well as competing in the Shot & High Jump. Simone Ager claimed 3rd place in the Long Jump but was struggling with an ankle injury and could only manage 4th place in the Triple Jump. Emily Cooper also had a successful today in a high class 400m race where she was dragged around to a PB of 64.29 secs. Both relay teams competed well with the 4x100m squad finishing 5th & the 4x400m team rounding off the meeting with a creditable 4th place.
For the Midland League at Rugby the club had to make extensive use of U17, U20 & Masters athletes, some making the league debuts, and were short of athletes in technical events such as hurdles and High Jump as they there were at the National League. In the event it proved to be an afternoon long battle between Gloucester, Coventry and the home team. Top performer of the day was in-form Adam Wright, running his last home fixture before heading to study in the USA. He led the 800m from gun to tape to win in 1.52.3 and then held off a fast finishing Coventry athlete to win the 400m in a time of 50.6 secs. He rounded off a busy day by anchoring the 4x400m to second place in another close race with local rivals Coventry.
It was a day when victories were hard to come by but the club achieved A&B string doubles in the men’s 200m thanks to Will Dean & Sam Whittaker, 400m (Wright & Will Price), Javelin (Bishop-Timmings and Kevin Murch) and Pole Vault (Murch & Ian Gidley), along with the Ladies relays. There were also A string wins for Megan Burge in the Triple Jump and Abi Hall in the Pole Vault. These were supported by B string victories in the 100m (Sam Whittaker), 5000m (Ben Musgrove), Discus (Glyn Hollingsworth) and both men’s and ladies Hammer competitions (Kevin Murch & Parisse Linton-Shaw). The other foundation of the days success were a string of 2nd & 3rd places in the throws thanks to John Moreland, Debbie Murch, Mica Quinn, James Wright, Kevin Murch & Parisse Linton Shaw.
At the end of the meeting the winners were Gloucester by a 6 point margin over Coventry with R&N a further 19 points behind, but almost matching their points tally from the previous match. This leaves R&N in second place with a clear lead over third placed Coventry. They need to finish no lower than 4th in the final match at Wolverhampton on the 4th August in order to guarantee promotion. The final match of the National League is the previous day at Basingstoke where both men & women will be competing together, so another bust weekend is in prospect to round off the season.
