What a day it was. The first hot day of the year with hardly any wind and lots of SETAFA AC and Academy athletes turned out at the Wessex League Match in Winchester.
A total of 9 athletes took part competing across the 100m,200m,300m and the Relay. SETAFA AC may be a small club but what a performance it was.
The day started with the 200m and first up was Academy Athlete Noah Foxcroft-Boyd who got off to a great start with a seasons best performance with 30.1 seconds.
Next Up was SETAFA AC athlete Annemiek Van Den Braak who stormed around the bend with sheer determination to lead into the straight and then accelerate off the bend ending in a strong finish and a new PB of 27.6s. Her previous best of 28.09 now a distant memory. Now her bout of illness is over she hopes to push on through the summer.
Next up in the 200m was SETAFA AC athlete Harriet Griffiths-Horrod who was recently crowned the Hampshire County 100m champion and is now trying the 200m for only the 2nd time. Harriett coasted around the bend and cruised down the straight to a new PB time of 27.6s. With her important 100m race later on in the day Harriett was in full cruise control and there is a much faster run on the cards later on in the season.
The next Heat involved 2 SETAFA AC U15 Girls Laila Rawlings 300m Hampshire Bronze Medalist and New Recruit Oneita Endje who both achieved Personal Best performances including 28.0 seconds for Laila and 29.2 seconds for Oneita. The girls had smashed their personal best performance by over a second which equates to around 9 metres faster. The girls were also 1st and 2nd in their heat and were now looking forward to strong performnaces in the 100m
In the final Heats of the 200m we saw U17s Omolara Akinpelu and Damilola Akinpelu with Omolara shocking everyone with a 1.5 second Personal Best. To put this into perspective she had run 15 metres faster than she had ever run before. This really was a performance of her life and was well deserved after all of the hard winter training. The fact that it was also her Birthday really was a fantastic present with more to come later in the day. Damilola was also in action even though GCSE study was rightly taking priority over summer training. A really respectable 29.2 seconds also came very close to her Personal Best
The excitement paused for lunch and then we were straight into the 100m heats. Competing first was Academy Athlete Noah-Foxcroft Boyd who achieved a fantastic 14.2 second and a first place performance which wrapped up a solid day of competition.
Next up was Harriett Griffiths-Horrod who had special permission to compete in the A string race as she was chasing the English Schools Qualifying Standard time of 12.7 seconds. Harriett had been saving herself for this race and it paid off with a fantastic 12.7 entry standard time and a personal best all rolled into one. Harriett now moves on to the Hampshire Schools Championships at The Mountbatten Centre on Saturday attempting to do the Hampshire Double and she will take some stopping .
Next up was the B string race which had Annemiek Van Den Braak taking part. In what was to be an exhibition of sprinting by all of the U15 Girls this was no exception. Flying out of the blocks Annemiek powered down the track with real gusto. The outcome was a new Personal Best performance of 13.2 seconds moving her up into the top 5 in Hampshire. Being a year one athlete the future really does look bright. Annemiek will be competing in the 200m on Saturday at The Hampshire Championships so it will be exciting to see what she can achieve.
2 races and 2 wins was then followed by the first of the non-scoring races where Laila Rawlings stepped up and gave another dominant performance achieving a new Personal best time of 13.4 seconds. This moved her up to 6th place in Hampshire. New Girl Oneita Endje also posted a personal best time of 14.1 seconds. This saw her also double up on Personal Bests
After what was proving to be a special day for SETAFA AC up popped U17 athlete Omolara Akinpelu and U20 athlete Isaac Fatunwase in the 100m. Birthday Girl Omolara was absolutely buzzing after her amaing Personal Best in the 200m and you could see the adrenaline was pumping in the 100m. The fastest time she had ever run was 14.1 seconds upto that point so the 13.5 second timing was a great ending to a great day for Omolara. Then came Isaac Fatunwase who had a previous Personal Best time of 11.8 seconds. Isaac looked absolutely focused in the starting blocks and flew out to see his Personal Best time drop down to 11.4 seconds. There will be much more to come from Isaac who after a few adjustments really can be a force in sprinting for years to come.
The day was drawing to a close with just 2 races left. The first was the 300m for U17 ladies and up popped Damilola again equaling her Personal Best of 46.4 seconds. Mesoma had turned up just for this event and she was focused going over to the start line. Her previous Personal Best was 46.8 seconds so when the time finally came up on the board she was astonished to see a new Personal Best time of 43.8 seconds. Everyone was flabbergasted and it will be great to see what Mesoma can now do in the Hampshire Schools Championships over 200m on Saturday.
The last event of the day was highly anticipated with the U15 girls relay team chasing a fast time to hopefully qualify for the UK Relay Championships in August. The girls had an hours training session beforehand and after such fantastic performances in the individual 100m heats expectation was high. Competing in Lane 1 was not ideal but the Girls did absolutely fantastic with great baton changes Oneita to laila to Annemiek and Harriett as anchor leg. The final time was 53.0 seconds which currently is the fastest time in Hampshire but just short of the target.
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