PRESS RELEASE

R&N’s Eleanor Broome clinches gold in England Athletics’ Under-20 Women’s Long Jump

Rugby & Northampton shone against the nation’s best as eight of the club’s athletes featured in the England Athletics under-23 and under-20 Championships at Bedford Athletics Stadium over the weekend of 18th and 19th June 2016.

Eleanor Broome was on top form as she clinched gold in the U20 women’s long jump competition with a huge leap of six metres and 21 centimetres in the final round to beat a very strong field.

Also in action in the women’s events was Kiona McLennon (11.75m), who managed seventh in the U20 shot put, while Evie Harris-Jenkins (39.64) achieved fifth in the U20 javelin.

Leading the way for R&N’s men was Adam Wright (01:52.22), who crossed the line fifth in the U23 800m, while James Wright’s long jump of 6.81m was enough for eighth.

Rico Ewer (11.47) and Zachary Stapleton (21.75) reached the semi-finals of the U20 100m and 200m events respectively.

Also in action this weekend were the U13 and U15 athletes as R&N extended their 100 per cent winning record in the Youth Development League.

The event, held at Coventry on Sunday 19th June, was a delightful one for U15 Connor Dadge, who won the 200m with a personal-best time of 24.1 seconds. Adam Caulfield (4:21.1) and Ben Gidley (46.47m) joined Dadge aloft the U15 rankings as they won the 1500m and javelin events respectively.

 

Callum Cooke registered a pair of second-place finishes in the discus (30.11m) and shot put (9.03m), while Sam Whittaker (40.6) achieved third in the 300m and Cian Hutton (1.80m) repeated the feat in the pole vault.

In the U15 B-string events there were wins for Matthew Barnaby (39.6) with a personal best in the 300m, Gidley (22.42m) in the discus, and Fenton Bishop-Timings (35.58m) with the javelin.

 

It was a record day for the U13 Boys as seven new personal bests were registered. On the track, Luke Gosling (12.7) won the A-string 75m, while Michael Corbett (2:32.4), Henry Woodward (4:57.8) and Lewis Gurney (13.7) set PBs in the B-string 800m, 1500m and 75m hurdles.

Meanwhile, in the field, Josh Tutt won the A shot put with a personal-best throw of 9.10m, and Kaiyuki Crisp (4.53m) also beat his previous best to win the A long jump. Noah Bennett (4:54.8) crossed the line as runner-up in the A 1500m and Gurney (1.43m) achieved second in the A high jump. In the B events, Conner Cooke (7.10m) won the shot put with a PB while Ollie Scott recorded a long jump (4.01m) and high jump (1.20m) double.

 

Mary Beetham-Green and Lily May Pursey achieved double success in the U15 Girls A events. Beetham-Green set a personal best in the 200m (26.0) before coming second in the 100m (12.8), while Pursey triumphed in the shot put (9.86m) and came third with the hammer (36.90m).

 

Maia Reynolds (24.72m) set a personal best on her way to second place in the discus and Abigail Ward (29.32m) went one better to win the javelin event.

Personal bests for Molly Williams (2:26.0) in the 800m and 75m-hurdler Amelia Tutt (12.3) helped both to B-string victories, and they were joined by Abigail Pearce (26.67m) and Parisse Linton-Shaw (8.30m) with first-place finishes in the javelin and shot put respectively.

 

Jess Roberts (24.4) led the way for the U13 Girls as she set a personal best for javelin success. Eve Corrigan achieved a pair of good performances as she was runner-up in the shot put (7.54m) before finishing third in the long jump (4.30m), setting a PB in the process.

Claudia Searle (3:59.7) also beat her previous best in the 1200m to come second while Annie Saghri (10.5) crossed the 75m-line in third.

 

In the U13 Girls B-string events, Megan Burge won the 150m in a personal best 21.5 seconds and Mica Quinn (22.69m) took the honours in  the javelin event.

 

R&N also achieved success by clinching their third team success in the sixth stage of the East Midlands Grand Prix Series, winning the Harborough Five on Tuesday 14th June 2016.

The athletics club boasted three top-10 finishes with new recruit Dominic Jones leading the team home to finish second in 27 minutes and 41 seconds.

 

Stephen Marks (28:05) crossed the line in fifth while Richard Latimer (28:15) finished 10 seconds and two places further back.

 

The victorious quartet was completed by John Gercs (29:17) who achieved 17th overall, which was enough for fifth in the M45.

 

Daniel Williams (29:42) followed Gercs over the line in 18th while Jonathan Burke (30:28) completed the course in 28th.

 

The Veteran Men’s team finished sixth and joining Gercs in the team was eighth-placed Nigel Roberts (30:48) in the M45, along with M50 pair Laurence Scott (fifth, 33:55) and Michael Howell (12th, 36:55).

 

Also performing well in the men’s race was Oliver Munns. His time of 33:35 secured fourth in the under-20 category.

 

In the Ladies’ section, Vicky Nealon became the sixth different athlete to lead R&N home in the Series when she clinched third spot in 32:52.

Lorna Latimer (35:17) crossed the line in seventh and Kate Williams (38:48) finished 31st overall and third in the over-55 race to secure a second-placed finish for the Senior Ladies’ team.

Backing up Williams in the ninth-placed Veteran team were F45 Helen Jones (ninth, 39:37) and F65 Valerie Cross (second, 55:52).

– Ends –