THE FINAL Midland Open event in Birmingham gave several Stratford Athletic Club track and field athletes the opportunity to round off the indoor season with a flourish.
Many produced encouraging signs of how their winter training had gone to prepare them for the upcoming outdoor season starting in April.
The Williams family turned out in force and for Cole Williams, who has worked extremely hard in the winter and has competed regularly to embed the fine technicalities of hurdling, it paid dividends in Birmingham.
He again lowered his PB in the U17 60m sprint with 7.34 and equalled his PB in the 60m hurdles of 8.14, but the big bonus was having a run over the 100m hurdles for the first time since last summer and he knocked nigh on a second off his legal PB with 13.43.
Williams’ sister Jasmine ran in the sprints and her performances demonstrated clearly that the longer sprints play to her strengths. In the 60m she ran 8.48 and in the 100m her time of 13.47 was not far off her PB set last year.
Younger brother Linden is following in his brother’s footsteps. After running 11.24 in the U13 60m hurdles, he switched to his outdoor distance and ran a PB in the 75m hurdles of 14.58.
After their mum Paula’s fantastic gold medal-winning exploits the previous week at the British Masters Championships, she threw 37.51m in the javelin, not far off her PB.
The Gravelsons are another family who regularly compete throughout the year and U17 combined-eventer Charlotte had a good day. Her 60m hurdles time of 10.62 was just .02 outside her PB but her 80m hurdles time of 14.22 was a personal best. She rounded off her weekend by throwing 17.02m in the javelin.
Brother Harry had an even better day, setting PBs in the U17 60m (8.65) and the 100m (13.69). Dad Brian also stretched his legs over 60m (9.07) and the 100m (14.28) for the first time this year.
Joshua Roberts has just moved up to the U15 age group and, throwing the 600g javelin in competition for the first time, opened his season with a solid 36.68m.
George Fox-Rowe is in his first year as an U17 and he had PBs in the high jump (1.70m) and 60m hurdles (9.73) and finished with a season’s best of 5.34m in the long jump.
U17 Alex Powell is proving to be a very consistent sprinter and his 60m time of 7.51 and his 100m time of 11.86 were just shy of his PBs.
Another combined-eventer, U17 Maddie Clark, had the busiest of competitions and produced solid performances in 60m hurdles (9.78), 80m hurdles (13.21) and 60m (8.74) on the track. In the field she threw 8.44m in the shot and jumped 4.64m in the long jump.
After a winter disrupted by niggling injuries, Kaili Woodward returned to competition as an U20 and jumped 5.09m in the long jump. Faye Gourlay had her best competition of the winter in the U17 high jump, finishing with a season’s best of 1.50m.
