After a lapse of a year due to the Pandemic, it felt like near normality had returned again with the annual county School's Championships in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire taking place at the Moorways and Harvey Haddon Stadiums on Saturday. In glorious sunshine, both events were superbly organised and were a credit to both County School's Associations and the army of teachers and club volunteers who saw the completion of the  events by mid afternoon. Many AVEAC athletes took part, representing their respective school's and at the end of the proceedings there was a sizeable number of  medals gained across the Junior and Intermediate age groups.

Junior - School's Years 8 and 9
At the Derbyshire Championships, Esme Aikman (Friesland School) set the ball rolling at the opening session on Saturday morning, winning the Shot title with a new personal best throw of 8.31m. Within the hour she had also gone on to take the 100m gold medal in 14.26. In the 100m, recent new recruit to the Club, Cam Cammack, (The Ecclesbourne School) held on to take the bronze medal by one hundredth of a second in 15.19.

There was a double victory as well for Imogen Laugharne (Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School) in the High Jump and 75m Hurdles with consistent performances of 12.43 in the former and 1.50m in the latter. Katie Fitzpatrick (St John Houghton Academy) took the silver medal in the High Jump clearing a new PB with very respectable height of1.45m. In the Long Jump there was a one, two for Mae Jones (The Ecclesbourne School) and Alexa Gordon (Derby Moor Academy). Mae had a series of consistent jumps over 5m with a best of 5.11m while Alexa recovering from recent injury made a welcome return to competition jumping 4.83m. In the Javelin Poppy Weller (The Ecclesbourne School) threw  17.13m to earn herself a bronze medal and personal best as well. 

In a very large field in the 1500m Charlie Halford (Belper School) finished outside the medals recording a PB of 5:30.41, an improvement on his previous best by over a second.

Meanwhile over at the Nottinghamshire event, Multi-eventer, Daisy Kaye (George Spencer Academy) was also in double winning form lifting the Javelin and 300m titles. Her effort in the Javelin, 27.52m, was a new best performance with the heavier 500g implement while a time of 44.1 was just outside her previous best from last season in the longer sprint.
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Intermediate - School's Years 10 and 11
In the Intermediate girl's competition, there were gold medals for Cecilia Smyth (Swanwick Hall) in the 80m Hurdles and Lucy Fitzpatrick (St John Houghton Academy) in the Triple Jump at the Derbyshire event while at the Harvey Haddon Stadium, Millie Walster (Nottingham High School) took the Javelin title. Cecilia's time was 13.84 while Lucy, who last competed indoors in March 2020, jumped 10.04m. Millie who has been putting together a pleasing set of performances recently, threw another best ever distance of 33.05m.

The Girl's Long Jump was one of the best competitions seen at the championships for a long time and both Katie Potts (Belper School) and Nicole Bonser (Heanor Gate Science College) recorded personal bests in a high class field that included two former national medalists from 2019. Katie finished 3rd jumping 5.22m, improving her previous best by 41cms while Nicole in 5th added 18 cms to her PB with a distance of 4.67m. Nicole then went on to take the bronze medal in the 100m finishing with a time of 14.57. Maddy Fahey (Belper School) and Isabelle Hays (Belper School) picked up bronze medals as well; Maddy in the 300m Hurdles and Isabelle in the 80m Hurdles with both athletes recording personal bests of  58.99 and 16.18 respectively.

Ryan Rawlinson (St Thomas More School) was on good form in the Intermediate Boy's group winning the Triple Jump and 100m Hurdles, setting personal bests in both. He hopped, stepped and jumped 11.76m, while in the sprint hurdles his winning time was 15.52. George Reynolds (Lees Brook Community School) took silver behind Ryan in the hurdles and then went one better in the Long Jump with  a gold medal winning leap of 5.94m, adding a centimetre to his recent PB set at the YDL match a few weeks ago.

There was a bronze medal as well for Joe Bennett (Friesland School) in the Javelin. Joe had a consistent throw of 32.49m, not that far behind his recent PB at the Burton AC Championships where he competed as a guest.

All in all it was a good day for AVEAC athletes  and it had it not been for the current situation with Covid, those of them who finished first and second would have been selected for the Derbyshire School’s team for the Inter County Mason Trophy which in pre pandemic days usually took place the week after the county event. 

Only RECREATION and TRANSITION groups should attend - other groups/bubbles will be unavailable due to athletes and coaches attending  Competitions
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It was great to see the yellow vests of our younger Under 13 and 15 athletes out on  show  at Snobnall  Athletics Track, Burton on Saturday last for the first  Lower Youth Development League match of the season.  The competition involved five other local clubs including the hosts, Burton as well as Derby, Mansfield, Notts and Charnwood. The programme of events like the Upper YDL League match the previous weekend was restricted to fit in with current Covid secure guidelines. The reduced programme  did not take away from the enjoyment of the competition which was well organised by the Burton officials. The Bank Holiday weekend and the school half term holiday did have an impact on the numbers of AVEAC athletes available to take part and this was particularly noticeable in Boy’s section with only one club athlete participating. 

Our five Under 15 girls managed to cover all the events in their age group. All performed magnificently and in the process recorded several personal bests. 

Daisy Kaye won the 300m by quite a margin recording a good time of 44.3 seconds. She also recorded 13.3 in the 100m eclipsing her previous best by 0.4 seconds. Daisy was well supported in the ‘B’ sprints by Jasmine Ellis who finished third in both with times of 14 seconds dead in the 100m and 47.7 in the 300m; both performances were personal bests. 

Imogen Laugharne bounced back from a mediocre performance in the High Jump at the recent Charnwood Open meeting to equal her personal best with a 1.55m clearance. She also tackled the Discus and finished second in the ‘A’ group throwing 14.49m. Mae Jones competing in the same events as Imogen, was second in her 'B' High Jump  with a height of 1.40m and in the  'B' Discus was also runner up recording 13.74m. Esme Aikman placed second in the ‘A’ Shot with a new best effort of 8.12m, bettering her previous PB by almost a metre.  She also broke the 14 second mark for the first time in the non-scoring 100m finishing in 13.9 seconds.

In the 4 x 100m Relay, the quartet of Imogen, Daisy, Jasmine and Mae finished second behind a very fast Burton team recording a highly respectable time of 54.1 seconds.
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Our five young Under 13 athletes were experiencing this level of competition for the first time and it was fitting to see them all enjoying themselves and in the process putting into practice the skills learned at recent coaching practices. 

Isla  Hiscocks followed up on her recent good performances at the Sheffield Open by improving her personal best in the Long Jump with an excellent leap of 4.19m. She also finished 4th in the 75m sprint in a time of 10.5 seconds. Naiya Starbuck was 2nd in the 'B' Long Jump also recording a personal best with a distance of 3.45m. Jasmine Shore came second in the 'B' 75m crossing the line in 11.4 seconds and after only one previous practice at the Javelin managed 10.76m to claim fourth place. Eleanor Rigby making her debut over the longer 1200m showed a lot of determination and placed 6th overall. The four girls ended their afternoon's busy schedule by teaming up together in the 4 x 100m Relay finishing 3rd in 61.6 seconds.

Our sole Boy representative was Gino Franco who in his second ever Javelin competition  improved his PB to 21.16m,  over a metre ahead of his previous performance set at Stretford, Manchester last Summer. He also ran 11.6 seconds in the 75m, another PB. 

A big thank you to Sarah Kaye who managed both teams and was ably assisted by a number of parents who stepped in to act as Officials. The second match,  in the three match series,  will take place on Saturday 17th July at the Harvey Haddon Stadium, Nottingham.  It is hoped that more club members in these age groups, particularly Boy’s, will put their names forward to take part.

Photos in the collages courtesy of Sarah Kaye and Burton A.C. 

The Club’s Under 17 and 20 athletes took part in the first Upper Youth Development League Match on Sunday last at Moorways Stadium, Derby. The programme of events was reduced as a way of reintroducing the league again in a Covid secure environment;  last year all fixtures were cancelled due to the Pandemic. The club finished fourth overall out of the five competing clubs  which as well as AVEAC also included Derby, Notts, Charnwood and Burton. Due to the pandemic several of the athletes were competing for the first time since the 2019 season and there were many excellent performances recorded including several personal bests.

Pride of place in the Under 17 age group must go to George Reynolds who produced a magnificent effort of 5.93m to won the Long Jump and in doing so, set a huge personal best jump that was a metre more that he achieved two years ago as an Under 15. George has managed to get some good quality training under his belt recently and it certainly paid off on Sunday. His first outing over the 100m hurdles also resulted in a respectable debut with a time of 15.6.  In the Under 17 'B' Long Jump Corey Tatum finished 2nd with a distance of 4.97m and for good measure recorded his fastest ever 100m in the 'B' race with a time of 12.3. In the 'A' race Ryan Rawlinson broke the 12 second mark for the first time finishing 3rd in 11.8, behind the winner Jamie Carrott (Charnwood), the son of former British international sprinter Andy Carrott. Ryan also took part in the Discus and won his category with a throw of 16.32m.

In the Girl's Under 17 Match, Millie Walster won the Javelin with another fine performance of 30.52m. Cecilia Smyth managed two personal bests in the 200m timed at 28.4 and in the Shot with a throw of 7.25m. Having not competed since 2017, it was good to see Grace Robinson don her spikes again in the 200m where she returned a time of 30.7. 

In the Under 20 category, the ever reliable Stan Dickenson, running the 800m for the first time since 2018, had a fantastic race and was rewarded with a PB of 2 minutes exactly,  finishing behind Derby's Jack Davis on 1:58:7.  Henry Knighton, better known as a High Jumper, showed that he could sprint a bit as well and he too produced a PB of 12.2 in the 100m. 

In the Women's Under 20 Match our two representatives, Charlie Yates and Sienna Grant produced good early season form with Charlie winning the Triple Jump with a distance of 10.45m and finishing 2nd in the High Jump clearing 1.50m. Sienna tackled the 400m for the first time and was rewarded with a time of 68.6.  

This Saturday several of our Under 13 and 15 athletes will tackle their first YDL fixture at Burton, taking part against Burton, Derby, Charnwood, Notts and Mansfield. The next Under 17 and 20 Match will take place at  Loughborough on Sunday 27th June. Athletes wishing to compete in this match should contact Team Managers, Jayesh Dave and Karen Yates.
  
Photo acknowledgement - Roy Reynolds 

Jessica Turner created a little bit of history last Saturday at the IFAM Meeting in Oordegem, Belgium  and in the process could become the first AVEAC athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. She ran the race of her life in the 400m hurdles and bettered her personal best by almost a second returning a time of 54.77,  well inside the Olympic qualifying standard of 55.4.  Jess was a clear winner of the race ahead of Belgium athlete Paulien Couckuyt who finished on 55.37. The fantastic run moves her up to 8th in the UK all-time list and according to the current World Athletics rankings places her as the 6th fastest long hurdler in 2021.  

Jess's race plan to execute each hurdle as well as possible and to be aggressive right through to the end, certainly paid off.  In an interview after the race for AVEAC she said, "when I crossed the line and saw the time flash up on the electronic score board,  I couldn't believe it. I was expecting to run 55 but when I saw 54.77, well under the Olympic qualifying standard, I was ecstatic! "  

Next up for Jess will be a race in Slovakia on Wednesday and she will be hoping to run well there too. She then has  a few more races abroad before the British Championships in Manchester on 26th and 27th June. 

 Combined Events National and Regional Medals for AVEAC Athletes 
Two AVEAC athletes, Ella Rush and Scott Ram competed at the English Open Senior and Under 20 Combined Events Championships held at Bedford's International Stadium over the weekend. Both athletes performed exceptionally well and came  away with medals.

Ella gained Silver in the England Under 20 Heptathlon scoring 5166 points.  She put together a pleasing set of performances over the two days which included personal bests in the 100m Hurdles (14.88), Shot (11.40m) and Javelin (28.94m). Her other marks were; High Jump (1.71m), 200m (25.34), Long Jump (5.73m) and 800m (2.26.41). The event also incorporated the Midland Championship and Ella’s points total ensured a Gold medal in the regional event.

​Scott Ram competed in the Senior Men's Decathlon and finished 9th overall scoring a personal best of 5683 points, bettering his previous performance by over 300 points. Considering that he has had limited technical training in several of the Decathlon disciplines due to Lockdown, this was quite an outstanding achievement by the second year Loughborough student. 

The Senior event also included the English Under 23  Championship and the Northern Regional title was up for grabs as well. Scott finished fourth best in the Under 23 championship and his grueling two days of fierce competition was rewarded with a silver medal at Northern level.  

 Doncaster Open Meeting
On Saturday, three AVEAC athletes competed at the Doncaster Open Meeting held at the Keepmoat Stadium.  Young Isla Hiscocks continued her good early season sprinting form by recording personal bests in the U13 100m and 200m. She was timed at 14.25 in the shorter sprint finishing 2nd while a clocking of 30.94 in the half lap event was good enough for 3rd. 

​In the Senior Women’s Javelin, Jessie Brown had a fantastic throw of 41.85m just short of her lifetime best. She won the competition ahead of AVEAC’s Alex Arbon, the Loughborough based athlete, who threw 37.73m. 

In the U17 Javelin, recent newcomer to the Club, Millie Walster, set a new personal best with a fine throw of 32.12m. Millie has recently moved to the area and previously competed for top London Club, Woodford Green and Essex Ladies. 

Youth Development League - good start for AVEAC 
As we go to publication the results of Sunday’s first Upper YDL match at Derby have not yet been uploaded to the Power of Ten results database so a fuller report will appear in next week’s blog. Both team Managers, Karen Yates and Jayesh Dave were pleased by the athletes performances which included several personal bests.  George Reynolds was in particular good form and long jumped 5.93m in the Under 17 event, a huge improvement on his previous best which suggests that it won’t be too long until he breaks the 6m barrier. 

This Saturday will see our Under 13 and 15 athletes take part in their first Lower YDL fixture at Burton where they will face opposition from the host club plus Derby, Charnwood, Notts and Mansfield. 

Photo acknowledgement:
Jess Turner - @jessturner
Ella Rush and Scott Ram - @jmccolgan

Ella Rush's final preparation competition before next weekend's national Under 20 Heptathlon Championship couldn't have gone better when she added four centimetres to her previous best ever performance in the High Jump, clearing 1.75m at the Birchfield Senior Open Meeting held at Nuneaton last Sunday.  The seventeen year old entered the competition at 1.55m and had first time clearances right through  until the bar was raised to 1.70m. Clearing that height on her third attempt, the bar was then set at 1.75m; new territory for Ella whose previous best was 1.71m, achieved when winning the Danish Under 18 Heptathlon last Summer.  Again it took three attempts to clear the new height and the sheer delight of securing her best ever performance to date was perfectly captured on camera by sports photographer Jonty Mitchell. The magnificent effort  left her runner up in the competition on faults behind  Zara Tyas (Stockport) who was recently selected for the British Under 20 Team to contest the Loughborough International. 

To round up a perfect afternoon's competition, Ella also recorded a legal Personal Best in the Women's 100 metre hurdles dipping under 15 seconds with a 14.99 timing and she finished off  the afternoon with a 200m time of 25.34, just under a tenth of a second behind her all time best. 

Alex Knibbs, Jessica Turner and Emily Coope were also in action at Nuneaton.  Alex taking part in his second 400m Hurdles race of the season clocked 50.82 finishing in 2nd place behind his arch rival Cameron Chalmers (Guernsey). He was marginally close to achieving the European Under 23 Championship qualifying standard of 50.50. This week it was announced by  the Europeans Athletics Federation  that the   championships which were due to be held in  Bergen, Norway from the 8th to 11th July, have now been postponed to later in the season, giving Alex a bit more time to dip under British Athletics entry requirement. 

Jess Turner also had her second outing over the longer hurdles and like Alex finished 2nd behind fellow International Jessie Knight (Windsor, Slough and Eaton). Her time of 57.30 was marginally slower than her previous competition at the Loughborough mid week meeting on 12th May when she crossed the finish line in 56.85.

Emily Coope contested the 100m, where athletes took part in two graded rounds. The former U.K. School Games Silver medalist returned two respectable times of 12.44 and 12.56 and with a few more races behind her, will be hoping to get back to the form she showed a few years ago when she dipped under the 12 second barrier.

​Charnwood Open 
The second  Charnwood Open took place on Wednesday at the Paula Ratcliffe Track, Loughborough. Three AVEAC Under 15 athletes took part in the action packed evening. Daisy Kaye continued her early season's good progress running 13.80 in the 100m and 28.49 in the 200m and completed a busy evening winning her Shot Put category with another fine effort of 8.42m.  In the High Jump, Imogen Laugharne cleared 1.45m while Mae Jones equaled her previous best, clearing 1.40m. 

Javelin trio at Burton Club Championships 
Three of the Club's Javelin throwers competed as guests at Burton AC's annual championships held on Thursday evening. Pride of place must go to young Freya Kirby, competing in her first ever Javelin competition. She came away with a victory by over eight metres ahead of the second placed athlete. The Under 13 year old's throw with the 400 gram Javelin was an excellent 25.21m and as the season progresses young Freya will be chasing the Under 13 Club record of 28.74m currently held by Daisy Kaye. ​

In the Under 17 Men's category, Joe Bennet recorded a personal best with the heavier 700 gram implement throwing a distance of 33.70m while Jessie Brown in Senior Women's competition had a seasons best effort of 38.81m when finishing second to training partner and Nottingham University student Nicky Bell. 

Photo acknowledgements
Ella Rush photos by Jonty Mitchell @photographybyjonty
Javelin throwers by Chris Kirby/ Athletic.Photography 

The club has re-launched it's newsletter to help provide our membership with more information. We hope that this will become a monthly publication and allow members to become more engaged with the club and how it operates.  If you have any ideas for an article, or any comments in general - good OR bad, please email the newsletter team at 'newsletter@aveac.club'
​Download the newsletter HERE

Jess Turner gained a Bronze medal in the 4 x 400m at the World Relay Championships as part of the Team GB squad, held over the weekend in the Polish city of Chorzow. Although Jess did not take part in the actual final race on Saturday, her last leg stint in Heat Three on Friday evening brought the British quartet across the line in pole position. Jess ran a solid leg and despite a fast finishing German, held on to take the team through to the final. The three semi final races were very competitive with the British team in fifth overall recording a time of 3:28:83. As well as Jess the other Semi Final team members were; Ama Pipi, Zoey Clarke and Jessie Knight.  Laviai Neilsen and Emily Diamond were brought in to replace Jess and Zoey in the final.  Weather conditions on Saturday took a turn for the worse affecting the times throughout the various finals. The British team clinched third spot behind Cuba and Poland in a time of 3:29:27 and ensured bronze medals for the the seven athlete squad.
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Round up of Weekend Opens
​AVEAC athletes have taken the opportunity at the weekend to avail of opportunities to compete at Open Meetings at Nuneaton and Sheffield. On Saturday 1st May, the Pingles Stadium, Nuneaton was the venue for another early season Opener. The Triple Jump event during the morning session saw three of our athletes in action. Daisy Kaye recorded a distance of 9:19m, Charlie Yates broke the sand at 10:09m and Ryan Rawlinson showed a lot of promise by jumping 11.21m, a Personal Best by nearly 40 centimeters from his previous competitive attempt at the event last Summer. Daisy went on to record another Shot PB, hurling the 3.25kg ball, 8:61m, adding almost 20 centimeters to her previous best set at the Birchfield Young Athletes meeting a fortnight ago. Imogen Laugharne opened her season's High Jump account with a very respectable 1:50m clearance and getting some endurance based work in for later season Pentathlons, she also ran a very gutsy 800m to cross the line in 2:45:57; another best ever performance. Corey Tatum finished 2nd in his Long Jump pool and had the satisfaction of also jumping over 5m for the first time with a distance of 5.15m. In his graded 100m sprint, Corey recorded 13.02 into quite a strong headwind of -1.9.

​In the Senior Women's events Ella Rush continued her preparation for the English Under 20 Heptathlon Championships with a 15:28 time in the 100m Hurdles while a debut 400m outing returned a time of 58:86. 
 
At the Sheffield Run, Jump, Throw Open at the Sheffield's Woodbourne Road Stadium on Bank Holiday Monday,  atrocious weather conditions with continuous heavy rain were the order of the day. Two AVEAC athletes braved the elements and recorded respectable performances despite the conditions.  Mia Franco ran her first ever 300m hurdles returning a time of 54:67 to finish 2nd behind City of York athlete, Kathryn Clague. In the Open Women’s Long Jump Katie Potts struggled with  her run up and only registered one legal jump  measured at 4.52m. 

A big shout out as well to Club Official James Franco who spent eight hours at the Sheffield meeting as race starter throughout the down pours and wintery conditions.

The weekend before Cecilia Smyth competed in the 100m at the Loughborough Spring Open and in a blistering dip finish came out the victor with a time of 13:81 in her graded race. At the same meeting, Decathlete,  Scott Ram recorded a time of 4:29:42 in the Senior Men’s 1500m. 

There were PBs as well for young Isla Hiscocks a few weeks before at the first Sheffield Open on 18th April. Isla recorded times of 15:09 in the 100m and 33:02 in the 200m at Under 13 level.

The Club's athletes are busily training again with event specialist groups meeting on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and the general club session taking place on Saturday mornings and at last some normality is beginning to return to the Club. The Youth Development League will start soon  with the older athletes in the Under 17 and 20 age group having their first fixture on the 30th May followed by the younger Under 13 and 15 group the week after that. Derbyshire Athletics have also announced that there will be two Mini League fixtures in July and County Championships in Mid September.

Photo acknowledgement:
Nuneaton Open - Sarah Kaye
Sheffield Open - Antoinette Franco

Well, what a long Winter it has been! COVID meant that all indoor competitions were suspended this year, coupled with the closure of the track and the seasonal weather, it seems like a long time since our athletes had the opportunity to display their skills in a competitive environment. With the easing of Lockdown, COVID secure competitions have returned in the last few weeks with training also resuming at Rutland Sports Park.

Sunday 11th April saw the first Open meeting take place at the Pingles Stadium, Nuneaton. Any wish for a bright sunny Spring day were severely dented with weather that resembled mid- Winter, with cold winds and the appearance of hailstones at intervals throughout the afternoon's competition. 

Ella Rush opened her 2021 campaign with a good solid opener in the Long Jump of 5.73m winning her pool, involving athletes across various age groups. Now Under 20, Ella will be using the early season to get used to new weights in the Heptathlon throwing events and her first outdoor effort at the 4kg Shot registered a PB of 10.63m. 

Mia Franco and Mae Jones were the only other AVEAC athletes in action.  Mia who has found time to get some track work done over the Lockdown at the Mansfield, finished a creditable  2nd in her 300m race and in the process clocked a new best ever time of  47.19 seconds  behind Tipton athlete Shaya Lewis. A really good start by Mia, who bettered her previous best of 47.83 set at a Charnwood Open Meeting in July 2019. Struggling with the headwind conditions in the Long Jump Mae Jones jumped a respectable 4.40m with several marginal fouls landing well in excess of this distance. She also took part in the Shot, registering a throw of 6.19m, slightly down on her best ever of 6.36m. 

The following Sunday, Nuneaton was the venue again, for the Annual Birchfield Harriers Young Athletes meeting which in previous years has been held at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, currently being rebuilt for next year's Commonwealth Games. Five of our Under 15 Girl’s were in action and all acquitted themselves admirably. Four of the five took part in the 100m with Alexa Gordon winning her graded race in 13.79 seconds. In the same heat Imogen Laugharne finished a few places behind her team mate in 14.06. Mae Jones was timed at 14.33 seconds in her heat finishing 2nd while Jasmine Ellis recorded 14.95  a few metres behind Mae. Jasmine ran the 200m as well clocking 30.86 seconds while the fifth member of the quintet Daisy Kaye also took part in the half lap sprint returning a time of 28.67. 

Turning their attention to the field events, Daisy, Imogen and Alexa all recorded PBs in the Shot. Daisy’s throw was 8.32m, Imogen’s distance was 7.29m and Alexa was just below 7 metres with a best effort of 6.97m. 

In the Long Jump, Daisy was credited with a jump  of 4.86m, a distance which she felt was measured wrongly being 43 centimetres further than her best jump from last Summer. She queried the distance with the Officials on duty and asked for the jump to be remeasured, only to be told that the mark where she had broke the sand had been filled in, so the distance recorded by the electronic measuring device stood.

Mae Jones improved by 20 centimetres on last week’s performance at the first Open with a leap of 4.60m, Imogen was just behind Mae on 4.53m and Jasmine’s effort of 3.93m was just seven centimetres down on her personal best. 

Ella in fine form at the University of Birmingham Open
On Wednesday evening past, Ella Rush took part in a Senior Women’s three event, Run, Jump, Throw contest and ran out a convincing overall winner. Competing for the first time over the Senior Women’s 100m Hurdles, she had a very fine start to the higher obstacles running a solid time of 14.90 seconds. In the second discipline, the Long Jump, a magnificent effort of 5.85m was almost a metre further than her nearest rival. The final event of the three, the Javelin, saw Ella record a distance of 28.07m with the heavier 600 gram implement. Ella will now compete in a few more open meetings before lining up for the England Athletics Under 20 Heptathlon Championships at Bedford on 29th and 30th May.

The Birmingham meeting under the auspices of the University attracted some of the country’s top athletes particularly in the British Milers Club Gold standard races which saw Jessica Judd run a very fast 3000m  race in 8 mins 52.73. 

It was good to see a number of AVEAC and former Derbyshire officials involved in the running of the event, with James Franco and Sarah McGraw acting as Track judges and the Club’s former Chairperson, Mel Naylor,  also helping out on the track.  Club Senior athlete ,Jethro McGraw, was also involved in the meeting acting as a pacemaker for one of the BMC graded races.

Jess called up for GB at World Relays
​Jess Turner who has kept her preparations on track for a hopeful selection for this years Olympics over the 400m Hurdles received the good news on April 12th that she has been included in the eight athlete women’s squad in the 4 x 400m World Relay Championships to be held in Silesia, Poland next weekend. As well as being involved in the Women’s relay, Jess is likely to also be included in the Mixed 4 x 400 event.  Jess is ideally suited to relay racing and will be hoping to emulate the fantastic leg she ran in the Semi Final of the World Championships in Doha, two years ago where her third leg stint was timed at 51.6 seconds. 
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 THANK YOU!!!
Thank you to all those who have already volunteered to help out with a track clean up when we get the go ahead to have access for this.
We also have had some others indicating that they are prepared to become involved on the management side of the club - all really, really appreciated, BUT to ensure the club continues to thrive we are still looking for more people to come on board for various roles to guarantee a continuous upward spiral for the club.
Please come forward to volunteer and help us!
You can contact existing coaches or committee directly or you can just pop an email to volunteer.aveac@gmail.com - and your email will be forwarded to the correct person. Please ask ANY questions / queries - we are keen for all volunteers to come forward!
The committee are in regular contact with Rutland and very much hope that we will soon be able to announce the restarting of our training sessions. All athletes should have received information about these sessions and potential bubbles; if you have not then please contact Janine Bonser
Keep fit and stay safe,
Bob Boyd, Chair

Athletes should now have received information regarding training bubbles for our (hopeful) return to training in a couple of weeks - if you have not received any info, please email:-
 aveac.membersec@gmail.com and we will ensure this is provided.   

With the track at Rutland potentially reopening in the week beginning 12th April the Club committee are meeting regularly (by zoom) in order to ensure that everything is ready for training sessions to resume.
Athletes have been contacted to confirm their choice of event bubble group.
We are also looking at the other ways in which we can be ready for the sessions to start again, ensuring we have enough Covid safety equipment and looking (from outside fence) at the state of the facility that may need a clear up following the recent poor weather and long period of closure.
Volunteers prepared to help with a clear up session should let us know, so don’t be shy!!! If you'd be interested in helping with the track tidy, please let us know by email at:-
volunteer.aveac@gmail.com
or contact us via our facebook page.
In the meantime we hope that you stay safe, enjoy your return to school, college or work and manage to maintain an element of fitness.
If you have any queries do please get in touch using the email address above
Stay safe,
Bob Boyd, Chair

This years Championship is a 'virtual one!' - Please follow the link to enter:-
ESAA Virtual Cross Country-Entry

If you're doing any shopping online - and who isn't! - please consider using:
 www.easyfundraising.org.uk/ 
This way, when you purchase items the club also gets a little something   -
and it doesn't cost you anything!

Two of the Clubs U15s travelled to Hull last Saturday to take part in a Young Athletes Open meeting.

Mae Jones had an exceptional Long Jump competition winning the U15 mixed group event.  She leapt over the magical 5 metre mark for the first time with an excellent series and ended up with 5.18m. The distance recorded by Mae ranks her 18th in the U.K. and 6th best first year Under 15. In the Shot Put Mae recorded another PB with a good effort of 6.36m. 

Imogen Laugharne took part in three events and she too produced a PB in the Shot with a 7.26m effort with the 3kg implement. She completed a busy afternoon finishing 2nd in the U15 100m in 14.77 seconds and returned another consistent distance in Long Jump recording 4.64m.

Seven AVEAC athletes made the trip across the Midlands to take part in an Open competition  at Sutton Coalfield on Saturday and like the previous meeting a few weeks ago in Nuneaton  several Personal Bests were recorded. 

Joe Bennett improved his Javelin PB for the second time in the space of a few weeks with a good throw of 31.50m adding 44 centimetres to his previous best mark set at Moulton Throws Fest in September. Sister Grace was a bit down on her performance at Moulton, still recording a respectable 26.61m in the Women’s Under 17 event.

At Under 15 level there were PBs in the 800m for Mae Jones and Imogen Laugharne and also for Jasmine Ellis in the Long Jump. Mae made an excellent start to her first even run over the 2 Lap race with a 2.47.8 clocking; Imogen’s time of 2.49.2 knocked over 10 seconds off her only other run over the distance last year in a Heart of England league match. Jasmine broke new ground in the Long Jump with her first ever 4 metre jump with a distance of 4.00m exactly.

In the Long Jump a couple of centimetres separated Alexa Gordon, Mae and Imogen.  Alexa recorded 4.56m while Mae and Imogen both broke the sand at 4.54m. Daisy Kaye who was feeling under the  weather recorded 4.13m. 

In the 100m sprints Alexa recorded 13.8, Mae and Imogen inseparable again on 14.2 and Jasmine was timed at 14.7 seconds.

During the Summer several of our young athletes took the opportunity to avail of the COVID secure Open Meetings held at the Pingles Stadium Nuneaton and in the process kept their competitive edge in tact during these challenging times. The final meeting in the series took place last Sunday and five of the club’s U15 Girls were in action. 

There was some excellent Long Jumping from Mae Jones, Alexa Gordon and Jasmine Ellis who all recorded personal bests. Mae broke new ground with a magnificent effort of 4.94m beating her previous best of 4.85m set indoors at Sheffield in January. Alexa Gordon added a centimetre to her previous best with a 4.91m leap while Jasmine Ellis’s 3.94m effort added 15 centimetres to her  best ever mark. What was even more remarkable about the distances was that they were achieved into strong headwinds. 

Mae also went on to record a new best performance in the 100m recording 14.20 seconds and finished an excellent competition  clearing 1.40m in the High Jump for her third PB on the day. Jasmine ran 48.03 for another PB in the 300m and finished a busy afternoon  running 2mins 49.51 in the 800m

Imogen Laugharne and Daisy Kaye were also in action. Daisy ran a fine time in the 300m recording 45.07 in the very windy conditions and also cleared a highly respectable 1.40m in the High Jump, a centimetre behind her PB. Imogen had a new best ever Shot Put throwing 6.85m and dipped under 30 seconds in the 200m crossing the finish in 29.75 seconds. 

Two of the Club’s older athletes, Javelin specialists Jessie Brown and Alex Arbon also competed. Alex’s throw with the 500 gram Javelin of 41.63m was a new best mark for the U17 athlete while Jessie recorded 35.18m with the heavier 600 gram implement in the U20 category.

The young Under 15 quintet are shaping up well as Multi-Eventers and have one more competition planned at Sutton Coalfield on Saturday 17th October.   

In a year where there have been few opportunities for all our athletes to compete and train due to the Covid Pandemic, it was fantastic to see two of our senior internationals gain podium positions at the 2020 British Championships held in the Regional Arena, Manchester today.

Alex Knibbs qualified in 2nd place in his heat of the 400m yesterday afternoon and wasn’t favoured to get into a medal position having the fifth fastest qualification time. In the final the script was torn to pieces in what was probably the most exciting  finish of the weekend proceedings. Entering the final 100 metres, he was well down the field quite a few metres behind the leaders.  Those who have followed Alex’s career know what a finish he can produce and this was certainly the case today. A blistering final run-in saw him gradually claw back his competitors and he edged into first place a few metres from the finish line, taking Gold in a new personal best in 46.65 seconds.  After the race his elation at winning was there to be seen in his interview with BBC reporter Jeannette Kwachi. 

The final of the Women’s 400m took place immediately after the Men’s race and Jess Turner nearly made it an AVEAC double with a Silver medal behind fellow British international  Laviai Neilson. Jess knocked two tenths off her previous best returning a time of 52.57. 

AVEAC had two other athletes in action, at the championships, Tamsin McGraw and Niamh Emerson. Tamsin was very unlucky not to make the final of the 800m. Her 6th place heat time of 2mins 8.84 was just half a second outside her lifetime best and she narrowly failed to progress with the 9th fastest time overall in the heats with eight athletes going through.  Niamh Emerson on her Heptathlon come back trail after injury last year finished 7th in the Shot final with a throw of 13.29m and in the heats of the 100m Hurdles she ran 14.44 in her first race for over fifteen months.

Finally our Club Coach Nisha Desai finished 8th in the 400m Hurdles final. Nisha representing her home club, Morpeth Harriers clocked 61.57 in her heat but found the final tough going and was a few seconds down on her heat time. 

We have recently been the subject of a copyright infringement claim concerning a photograph that was uploaded to our website. 
As a consequence of this all website and social media accounts have/are in the process of being screened and any images where we cannot verify copyright compliance have/are being removed.

Can anyone submitting images to our web/social media please ensure they comply with all copyright requirements.

In general, the safest images are those that you own!
Even a photo of a TV screen is, strictly speaking, copyright although in reality companies like the BBC will let it slip, however - if they do change tact, we would be liable.

If you are in any doubt, don’t submit an image without checking first.

Thankyou
Bob Boyd, Chair

After a highly successful virtual ESAA T&F competition the ESAA have decided to offer a similar opportunity to ESAA Combined Event athletes and Race Walkers.

Due to the nature of these events and the restricted access some athletes still have to tracks a whole month will be allowed to complete the individual events which make up a pentathlon, heptathlon, octathlon or decathlon or for race walkers to be able to access their local track.

The attached information letter ( download here ) contains the links to the two virtual competitions and also gives a detailed explanation of how to enter and the whole process of completing and submitting the event performances.