The weekend saw the beginning of the outdoor season for many of Stevenage and North Herts Athletics club’s members.

Saturday saw the first Southern Athletics League match, in Bromley, whilst Sunday held the opening match of the Eastern Young Athletes League. Also, one member travelled to the Brighton Marathon.

Thirty-one senior athletes travelled to Bromley and the club managed an impressive second place to hosts Blackheath and Bromley and recorded some top performances against other high level athletes.

In the women’s competition Shannon Rapacchi and Abigail Pickard had a double win in the A and B string pole vaults with 3.10m and 2.30m respectively. Abigail also secured second place in the B string triple jump with 8.68m.

A further double win came in the javelin where Kirsty Bateman Foley won the A string (33.63m) and Chloe Vernon-Hamilton the B string (28.83m). Chloe had earlier been second in the long jump A string (5.30m).

Anna Marie Uzokwe had a first place in the B string 400m (1:01.27) and Emily Saunders was second in the B string 200m (26.39s).

The men’s team saw Peter De’Ath first in both the B string 200m (22.39s) and A string 400m (49.82s).

Elior Harris was first in the A string high jump (1.95m) and Tyler Mitchell was first in the B string high jump (1.80m).

Elior also won the A string 110m hurdles (16.81s) and Charlie Yearwood won the A string 200m (22.21s). Finally, Oscar Jopp was first in the B string 400m hurdles (1:10.88) and Nathan Gardner won the B string long jump (6.28m).

Martin Reed took part in the Brighton Marathon completing the race in three hours 51 minutes and achieved an impressive 2,000th place out of 11,000 runners.

Eastern Young Athletes League

On Sunday 60 of the club’s younger athletes faced tough competition in their first Eastern Young Athletes League match. The club came third against strong teams from Havering and Shaftesbury Barnet.

In the U13 age group strong performances came from Jessica Astill and Clare Hudson. Astill was second in the B string 200m (31.8s) and Hudson came first in the B string 70m hurdles (13.9s).

In the boys’ category Alex Pickard placed first in the A string 100m (14.1s) and second in the A string 200m (28.8s). Feran Ogunsakin placed first in the B string 200m with 28.9s and Logan Armstrong was second in the B string javelin (6.12m). Lastly the 4x100 relay team placed second in 1:01.0.

U15 athlete Lisa Marie Uzokwe won the B string 100m (13.4s) and Bluebell Cooke placed first in the 800m (2:30.5).

In the 300m Leah Cairns and Connie Andrews both placed second in the A and B string races respectively (46.9s, 49.5s). Connie also won the A string pole vault (1.90m).

Elsewhere in the field events Elle Stone came first in the B string javelin (21.16m) and had second places in the A string discus (18.50m) and shot putt (8.51m).

Gabriella Dawodu was second in the B string discus (14.29m), placed first in the A string hammer (19.45m) and Georgia Shephard-Gazely came second in the A string javelin (28.73m).

In the boys Ralph Williams was first in both the A string 80m hurdles (12.5s) and B string high jump (1.45m) and second in the A string 300m (43.9 s). Also in the 300m Jason List placed second with 44.6s.

Cameron Crowe won the B string 80m hurdles (14.7s), the A string high jump (1.60m) and the A string shot putt (10.46m).

Dominic Buckland placed first in the B string shot putt (8.70m) and had second places in the A string discus (36.07m) and A string hammer (23.57m). To round things off Ben Simpkins was second in the B string javelin with 29.66m.

In the U17 age group Alisha Levy won the A string javelin (35.69m), the B string discus (22.94m) and was second in the B string shot putt (8.84m).

Anna Marie Uzokwe placed first in the A string 100m and 300m (12.8s and 41.0s) and Jennifer Nwosu was second in the B string 100m (13.7s).

Katie Saunders came second in the B string 800m (2:37.5) and Abigail Pickard was second in the A string pole vault and A string long jump (2.40m and 4.65m).

Shona Pybus won the B string javelin and was second in the A string high jump (28.57m and 1.40m) while Rebecca Brown was runner up in both the B string high jump and triple jump (1.25m and 8.38m).

Amelia Royce came first in the A string discus.

For the men, Daniel Streeter came first in the 800m in two minutes two seconds and Aaron Hadfield was second in the B string in 2:22.

In the 100m hurdles Peter Keefe and Oscar Jopp both placed first in 14.6s and 15.6s while Keefe also placed first in the B string discus with 36.83m and Jopp was first in the B string long jump with 5.02m.

Lee Brown had first places in both the A string pole vault and B string high jump (3.00m and 1.7m) and was second in the A string triple jump (11.58m) whilst Tyler Mitchell won the A string high jump with 1.9m.

Liam Gregory came first in the B string triple jump with 10.35m and William Rodway was second in the B string shot putt with 9.63m.

Euan Metcalfe produced first places in the A string discus and shot putt (37.40m and 10.97m) and Mathew Spicer won the B string Javelin with 27.46m. The men’s 4x100m team placed first in 47.5s.