Several new Records and Best Performances were set in the first two weekends of 2008 and it’s the Pole Vaulters who are setting the pace.
First to shine was U15G, Rhianydd Llewellyn of Bridgend. Her best outdoors prior to this Indoor Season was 3.00.
Her winter campaign started with a 2.90 vault in a Midland Counties open meeting at Birmingham on the 2nd December when she broke the Welsh U15 Best Performance of 2.80 (Held by Emma Jones, Swansea). A week later in Manchester she cleared 2:80.
On the 5th January, at the UWIC Grand Prix in Cardiff, there were 19 competitors in the Women’s Pole Vault. including nine Welsh Athletes. Rhianydd finished in 9th place with a vault of 3.00 – another U15 Welsh Best Performance. Next day she returned to Cardiff for the Welsh Athletics Open meet and won the U15G event in yet another Welsh Best Performance of 3.10
The following weekend, in the Welsh Junior Championships, Rhianydd was challenged for the U15 title by Lucy Roulston of Deeside who had a best of only 2.61 during 2007. Lucy entered the competition at 2.40 clearing it on her first vault. She also cleared at the first attempt 2.50 and 2.60. At 2.70 Rhiannydd joined the competition and both girls cleared that height and 2.80 (new championship BP) at their first attempt.
With the bar at 2.90 Lucy cleared the height at her 2nd attempt but at 3.00 she had three failures whilst Rhiannydd cleared once again at her first attempt and in doing so
won the event and laid sole claim to a new Indoor Championship Best Performance.
The UWIC Grand Prix (5th January) saw another good Pole Vault competition with 16 competitors taking part in the men’s event. With a best of 2.95set last year, U15B Stephen Guest – also of Bridgend – appeared to be out of his depth but the competition spurred him on and although finishing in 14th position, his winning height of 3.40 smashed the previous Welsh U15B Best Performance of 3.20 set by Andrew Penk (Wrexham) in 1992.
At the Welsh Junior Championships, Stephen also broke the Championship Best Performance of 2.81 with clearances of 3.00 (2nd attempt), 3.10 (2nd attempt), and 3.25 (1st attempt) He finished the competition with three failures at 3.35’
The Welsh Junior Championships U17 Women’s’ PV competition was won by Elinor Lewis with a vault of 3.40 which equalled the Welsh Indoor BP and the Championship Best set by Jessica Abraham in 2005
Away from the Pole Vault, Welsh Best Performances were set in theU13 Boys Long Jump with Kierran Cooper of Wrexham raising David Guests old mark of 4.74 up to 4.90 and then 4.92. Those performances were also Championship Best Performances.
With David Guest doing so well in the Combined Events people often overlook the performances of Ben Gregory who competes for Vale of Aylesbury AC.
Ben set a new U20 Indoor Heptathlon Record at the England Athletics Combined Events Championships (Sheffield 12/13 January) with a score of 4933 points. (Old record of 4892 points held by Ben Roberts of Colwyn Bay since 1998)
Ben Gregory’s performance included 7.56 (60m), 6.60 (LJ), 12.41 (SP), 4.55 (PV), 8.81 (60mH) 1.71 (HJ) and 2:49.27 (1000m)
Benytta Doman (Cwmbran) is the only athlete so far this year to set a new Track Indoor Best Performance. This she did on the 12th January when she comfortably won the U17W 800m at the Junior Championships by almost 5 seconds to remove the old mark set by Sarah Mead (Torfaen) in 1994. Benytta’s performance was also a Championship BP.
Other new Junior Championship Best Performances were set by
Men/Boys New Mark Old Mark
60m U20 Chris Howe (Cardiff) 6.99 7.01
200m U20 Chris Howe (Cardiff) 22.49 22.51
800m U15 Ellott Hardee (Newport) 2:07.95 2:08.29
60mH U17 Benjamin Cleary (Cardiff) 8.64 8.66
TJ U20 Alex Ezechi-Obiako (unattached) 13.80 13.79
Women/Girls
60m U15 Sara Otung (Cardiff) 7.99 8.02
HJ U17 Hannah Thomas (Wrexham) 1.60 =1.60
PV U20 Jessica Abraham (Cardiff) 3.52 3.50
SP U17 Tesni Ward (Sheffield) 12.86 11.72
Ken Bennett
Records Officer
18th January 2008
