Great Teen Performances at Mark Cawte Memorial Games

Ed in his new 'go faster' spikes

Only three Club members competed at the Mark Cawte memorial games at Foundation Park track in Swindon on Sunday, as T&F "stalwart", Aria Stavrakakis was ill.

A mixed weather day, but with a chilling strong wind made it a tough day for good performances (I'm getting in my excuses early!). But we did have two Teens who despite that set PBs : Ed Knight in the 1000m and Alice Averies in the 600m.

Their coach also participated in some events, bizarrely lining up alongside Alice in the 600m: 80m sprint into the headwind, 600m 20 minutes later, and lastly the long jump after the 2pm rain shower, so causing the sand in the pit to stick to him!

Starting with the longest event for younger Teens: 1000m. Ed ran a strong race, holding his form into the wind in the last 100m to finish in 3:34.11 (a PB) and beating his "arch rival", Lyra Leach (formerly of Stroud AC, now at Swindon Harriers) for the first time in ages. It would have been a new Club U13 record, beating Ben Conway's mark from this meeting in 2023, but as we now have even number age categories for Juniors, it's a new U14 record. Either way, well done Ed on a great performance in tough conditions.

As stated above Alice (now first claim Swindon, second Ciren) ran in the same final as her coach, but left him standing on the start line, coming third in 1:56.73, which would have beaten the Evie Mence's old U13 record, were Alice still a first claimer and not U14! It is however, a level 3 PB award, less than two seconds off level 4, so well done, Alice.

In the 600m, Dorian went through the first 200m in 40s, exactly on plan, and the second 200m felt about right too, but his legs tired into the headwind to finish at the back in a time two seconds slower than 3 years previously, albeit run in much more pleasant conditions.

Whether his 80m race had any adverse impact, we don't know, but he feels the 600m did impact his jumping ability, later in the day.

Despite a really strong tailwind, usually good for long jumps, but not so much for hitting the board on the run-up, he was about half a metre down on his PB (from last year), on his first jump. He improved steadily throughout the first four rounds but only by about 5cm each time. He over-stepped the board trying too hard in round 5 and was shorter in round 6 so settling for 3.24, about a foot short of his PB. Probably not a bad result based on the zero technical training he had done for the jumps over the winter!

Ex-member Ben Clarke (now U18 as he's 16) ran the 3000m and came 4th in 9:37.27, a PB, and a level 4 PB Award.

RESULTS

1000m U14 final

1st Jonah Lynch (Newbury AC) 3:14.09

5th Ed Knight 3:34.11 (Club record)

6th Lyra Leach (Swindon H) 3:37.75

600m mixed age group

1st Sabine-Louise Hosking (Newbury AC) 1:49.74

3rd Alice Averies (Swindon Harriers) [U14] 1:56.73

9th Dorian Matts [U14+] 2:12.15

Long Jump (men)

1st Kaelen McLeary (Yate & District AC) [U20] 5.47m

4th Dorian Matts [U20+] 3.24m