Buckinghamshire Track and Field Championships

Horspath Stadium, Oxford

8th and 9th May 2010

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Track and Field Championships took place at Oxford's Horspath track on Saturday and Sunday.

On a grey, blustery and sometimes drizzly weekend, Chiltern Harriers athletes collected a good total of thirty medals.

Under 13 girls
The star of the team was Rebecca Yeabsley who continued her great season with three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 70m hurdles. The times of 13.69 and 28.98 for the sprints were PBs and keep Rebecca in the top 20 in the national rankings. Hannah Thear took gold in the 1500m on Saturday in a new best time of 5.30.42 and added bronze in the 200m on Sunday with 31.41. Also on Sunday Georgie Bingham beat her personal best to record 2.41.98 for the 800m as she was narrowly pipped into third place on the line. There were also good performances from Rachel Klima in the 100m and long jump, Katie Bench in the 1500m and discus, and Jessica Wilkinson and Hannah Thear in the 800m.

Under 15 girls
Connie Lewis debuted at 3000m on Sunday and won the gold medal in 10.52.53. Against some very tough opposition, including some athletes ranked first in their events nationally, the Chiltern girls battled well and achieved many PBs with Claudia McInerney, Chess Gordge and Sarah Cross in the sprints and Hannah Shepard in the 75m hurdles. In the middle distance events Chloe Allen and Rosalind Firth struggled with heavy colds and Amy Harris continued her steady comeback from a broken arm.

Under 17 women
Sophie East won a great gold medal in the 100m in 12.79, always slightly ahead in a close contest. Georgie MacDonald and Isabelle Assirati were both unlucky, Georgie fourth in both 100m and 200m and Isabelle fourth in the 300m. Alicia Evans also ran well in the 100m and gained a bronze medal in the discus.

Under 20 women
Clarice Underwood won the 100m in a good time of 12.36 to get her season going.

Under 13 boys
Charlie Smith won gold in the 75m hurdles in 16.04 and silver in the 100m in 14.96 but unfortunately injured his heel in the hurdles. Will Perkin battled against a stiff wind to gain a silver medal in the 800m and George Robinson improved his PB in the shot to 7.77m to win the silver medal. David Willcox was fifth in the 800m.

Under 15 boys
The bulk of Chiltern's medals came in this age group with Alex Johnson winning golds in the high jump (1.40m) and 400m (58.40) and bronze in the 800m in 2.15.61. Elsewhere Brandon Janson won silver in the 200m in 26.08, and Alex Russell the bronze in 26.46 and Robert Hughes won bronze in the 400m in 70.17. Michael Goddard won silver in the 3000m in 9.58.70 and Joe Aherne just missed a medal in fourth with 10.37.20. James McCarthy ran well both 800m and 1500m. In the field events, Callum Reid-Jones won silvers in the javelin with 26.12m and high jump with 1.40m and John Underwood continued his progress in the discus with a bronze medal in 27.87.

Under 17 men
The Under 17s were all first years and all did well. Tom Brady ran a season's best to win bronze in the 100m in 12.14. Daniel Cady and Dominic Janson also recorded season's best times and were fourth and fifth in both 100m and 200m. Jack Walker reached the 400m final and came fifth, also finishing seventh in the 800m. George Gillingwater finished eighth in the very high standard 1500m.

Under 20 men
Zak Underwood won the pole vault with 3.00m and Joe Stevens was fourth in both 200m and 400m. William Shepherd was third in the 100m.

Senior men
Matt Bennett retained his 5000m title in 15.32.2 and won silver in the 1500m. Tom Beedell was the silver medallist in the 3000m steeplechase in 10.20.94.

Herts County Champs
Meanwhile at Watford Hannah Morton won silvers in the Under 13 girls 800m and high jump to add to her gold in the 1500m last week, and Ben Whitney ran a PB of 2.14.32 to win the silver medal in the Under 15 boys 800m. Hannah Wardley ran 2.44.0 in the 800m to be eighth and long jumped 3.67m.