Juniors and Teens participate in "Sportshall" Competition

Fritha supporting Saffron's handover to Eleanor, while Florence awaits her turn

With ever increasing numbers of Juniors and Teens attending the Wednesday training sessions we have been looking at further activities to supplement their involvement in Athletics. Currently Teens and older Juniors can do open track and field meetings, including Low Key Opens, in the summer and cross-country in the winter plus the odd Parkrun. Younger Juniors can now also do XC as Oxford league races are open to Under 9s. But until now we have not been able to offer children more "track and field" related events outside the summer. Thankfully, this year, due to the sterling efforts of one of our parent helpers, Fritha Stavrakakis, Juniors and younger Teens are able to participate in the local "Sportshall" competitions.

Organised by Cheltenham Harriers' junior activities stalwart, Elliot Prince, (he also runs the Low Key Opens), Sportshall Competition is an indoors Athletics event, held in Sports halls, surprisingly enough!

Sportshall events are similar but obviously adapated from the the usual track and field events, some being simulations, but they cover the three main elements of Athletics : Run, Throw and Jump. It is a team-based competition, but the organisers are flexible enough so that all children who attend can participate in the events.

There are three events this year, the first being 16th November, with the second one 30th and the last on 21st December.

Our four Juniors demonstrating great athletic ability in three of the U11 events : Joseph and Eleanor doing the Standing Log Jump, Saffron the Chest Push Throw, and Florence and Eleanor the Balance Bar.

For the first one we had four from the Juniors

• Joseph Leicester

• Florence Tanner

• Eleanor Chappell

• Saffron Spence

and they did :

1. Standing Long Jump [SLJ] NB we did this as part of the Quadkids competition,(see recent report)

2. Balance bar (2x each leg holding the other bent like a hamstring stretch, max 60sec.) [BB]

3. Chest Throws (2 handed push throw) [CP]

4. 1 lap Time trial [1TT]

5. 4x 1 lap relay

6. 2x2 laps relay

We had three from the Teens:

• Aria Stavrakakis

• Katie Leicester

• Tom Francis

and they did :

1. SLJ

2. Shot put (which we hadn't practised recently)[SP]

3. 1 lap Time trial

4. 4x 2 laps relay

Our Teens : Aria on left about to throw the shot and SLJ'ing, Katie and Tom doing SLJ

Children and parents really enjoyed the event :

"was a great morning and brilliant atmosphere for everyone competing"

"Florence really enjoyed it. And there was a great atmosphere for the running events!"

"Lovely competition with lots of cheering and great atmosphere"

And from Fritha: "Thank you so much to all the athletes who took part today! You were all amazing and such great representatives for the club — we hope you had a brilliant time"

So if you want to get involved in future events, please contact Fritha Stavrakakis through the Juniors or Teens WhatsApp groups.

RESULTS

the results have come with the performances converted to points. I will endeavour to back calculate the performances when I have the calculation spreadsheet.

Under 11s:

Eleanor Chappell 325 pts (76 1TT, 83 SLJ, 79 CP, 87 BB)

Joseph Leicester 237 pts (51 1TT, 53 SLJ, 80 CP, 53 BB)

Florence Tanner 232 pts (52 1TT, 57 SLJ, 47 CP, 76 BB)

Saffron Spence 230 pts (50 1TT, 47 SLJ, 60 CP, 73 BB)

Under 13s: (only part results available currently - I will update when have complete set)

Tom Francis 93 pts (SP 93)

Aria Stavrakakis 92 pts (SP 92)

Katie Leicester 85 pts (SP 85)