National Age Group Championships update

The recent Scottish Age Groups Championships saw good results for a number of Harriers  in particular in the throws and jumps events. Evie Bartl, U17, competed in the javelin. Evie went into the championships as the first ranked girl in her age group in Scotland but recent results had not been going according to plan despite a good start at the beginning of the season where she threw a new PB of 37. 30m at the West District Championships. It has been tricky season to combine two sports , athletics and competitive weightlifting, but recent training sessions showed again promising signs that there might be a successful end to Evie’s summer season. Evie got off to a great start with a new pb in her first throw of 37.92m which in fact won the competition. However, it’s the overall throwing sequence which was indeed impressive as all throws exceeded her previous pb with 4 throws over 38m (37.92m, 38.17m,37.81m,38.87, 38.05 and 38.74m). Although we did not achieve the season’s aim of throwing over 40m, I am positive that this distance is not too far off and with a few more months concentrated javelin training, this would have been a realistic aim.

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Barbour and Finlay Walker, both U15, competed the following week (21st August). Sarah competed in the pole vault and in the javelin. Although Sarah had been making good progress in both events, the pole appeared to be the event where she had a real chance of making it onto the podium, as Sarah had already cleared 2.30m earlier this season winning the Scottish Schools in her age group. Unfortunately, Sarah missed narrowly out jumping only 2.21m on the day but made up for it in her second event. Sarah was unlucky not to make the javelin final last year at the Scottish Championships U13 where she threw 19.15m with the 400g javelin. However, Sarah had steadily improved since moving up to U15 now throwing with the 500g javelin and she went into the championships with a PB of 25.73m, which won her a bronze medal at the West District. Sarah’s PB of 25.73m only gave her a slight chance to make it into this year’s final as a number of competitors had thrown much further this season. In fact, Sarah had to throw a new PB to give her any chance to progress at this year’s championships.

Sarah did not disappoint as her first throw of 26.42m was indeed a new PB and she followed this up with a second throw of 27.40m. It all looked promising from this point onwards and after Sarah’s third throw I had to remind her to put her javelin spikes on again, as she was already in the process of  packing her bag and leaving the competition in the belief that she did not make the final again. As it turned out Sarah had indeed thrown another PB of 29.64m in her third throw, which had put her into contention for a medal. To her and my amazement there were three athletes left when the competition finished waiting to be escorted to the medal ceremony and Sarah was one of them. Once the final results were announced Sarah was all smiles and she can be proud of her achievement in her first year in the U15 age group as she had not only smashed her previous PB four times (26.42, 27.40, 29.64 and 26.52) but has made an incredible progress over the past year, improving over 10m since last year despite throwing with a heavier javelin (500g).

Finlay Walker, U15, had all reasons to be confident to compete at the National U15 pole vault competition as he had already won indoor gold and the Scottish Schools and setting new personal bests along this way, clearing twice the height of  3.50m. Preparation were slightly hindered due to bad weather and holidays and the fact that Finlay was overly keen to vault with his new 4.30m pole. The longer and stiffer pole proved to be more difficult to handle and we had to rely on his old 4.0m pole, which by now has become too soft (the bend was getting too much). The competition itself proved to be challenging due to windy and wet conditions, which really prevented any attempt of a new PB. Consequently, Finlay struggled to adjust to this conditions and only cleared 3,21m, requiring two attempts at this height resulting in him coming second on count back despite clearing the same height as the first placed athlete. Despite this setback Finlay was determined to compete at the English Championships, in order to compete with the best of the British vaulters in his age group. From the results of Power of 10 Finlay knew that in order to make any impact at this championships he would have to jumnp a new PB. Again preparation did not go to plan as no vaulting at AAA due to fault in pole vault equipment so we had to make use of the Emirates for a few nights training. Nevertheless, we had a good trip down South, which coach and family Walker enjoyed. 

Finlay determined as ever, was keen to make himself and Kilmarnock proud. During the warm up he approached another competitor asking if he could borrow one of their stiffer poles. Finlay used a 4.0m/135lb pole compared to his current 4.0m/115lb and to his amazement he cleared excellent heights during the warm up. Knowing that he had to jump a new PB to get any chance of a medal Finlay took the brave decision to start at 3.31m; a starting he had never attempted before.  Although he needed two attempts to clear this height it meant that this height was already higher what he had jumped a week before and could have won him gold at the Scottish Age Groups. Finlay also cleared 3,41 second attempt and was unlucky not to clear 3.51m. Despite his heroic attempts, changing poles in the middle of the competition, he managed an excellent 4th place in the English Championships. The medal winners of the championships all jumped new PBs – 3.91m, 3.81m and 3.61m. However, this was a really good learning experience for all involved and I am quite confident if the season had been 1-2 months longer, Finlay would had cleared 3.60m easily given the fact that he got so quickly used to a stiffer pole, which would have helped him to jump this height. Overall, a good closure to the summer season, which saw Kilmarnock Harriers athletes doing rather well at National Championships. Coach Harald more than pleased with these achievements and is looking forward to a wee rest…Thanks to all who helped during this process, in particular to the staff from the athletics arena, who set up the pole vault equipment even on short notice.

Thanks also to the committee for supporting the funding of new poles, which really has made a significant impact on the success of our vaulters.