Fast start to season on and off track
A NEW senior island shot record for Gemma Tingay, a UK top-10 ranking performance by hurdler Michael Batiste and the breaking of one of Dale Garland's school records are among the highlights of the first fortnight's action in the domestic track and field season.
A NEW senior island shot record for Gemma Tingay, a UK top-10 ranking performance by hurdler Michael Batiste and the breaking of one of Dale Garland's school records are among the highlights of the first fortnight's action in the domestic track and field season. Tingay erased the island shot put record held by Emma King since 1998 when she produced an effort of 11.23m competing for the Channel Islands women in their opening match at Tooting.
Already the holder of the island javelin record, Tingay, just 17, improved King's mark by 11 centimetres.
Jonny Guille produced the outstanding performance at the Elizabeth College senior school sports day, winning the triple jump with a remarkable leap of 13.20m, which surpassed Dale Garland's sports day best.
The victory helped Guille take the overall individual title, having also won the 100m hurdles in a handy 16.8sec. and the javelin with 42.68m.
Personal bests were in abundance from the GIAAC contingent as the combined Guernsey/Jersey squad began a new season in Southern One West of the UKA Young Athletes League.
Having gained promotion in their inaugural season of the massive nationwide competition, the combined CI team placed third in their opening match at Bournemouth, just missing out on a top-two spot after some poor relay results.
Arguably the top performance came from under-17 400m hurdler Michael Batiste who took a big slice off his personal best in beating the 60sec. barrier for the first time and as a result finds himself ranked among the top 10 in the country. Batiste won by approximately 25 metres.
Fellow under-17s Matt Loveridge, Danny Carre, Simon Touzeau and Tony Brehaut also had a good day with personal bests.
Loveridge clocked 2-05.6 for the 800m just half-an-hour after showing his raw speed with a fine best of 24.5 over 200m.
Touzeau won his 3,000m B string in a new best and also showed his javelin potential with a throw of 42 metres.
In the under-15s, Will Bodkin finished a close second in the A-string 1,500m, while at under-13 level there were notable wins for Sam Hall in the 1,500m, Ross Hanley in the 200 B string and Robyn Wild in the sprint hurdles.
Debutante Chloe Huxter did not manage a win but produced some excellent sprinting with runner-up placings in strong 100, 200 and hurdles races.
Team manager Richard Cowling said he was very pleased with the overall team performance and the team should have no problem in holding their own at the higher level.
'Unfortunately, at under-17 level the team had no girl competitors from Guernsey and only three from Jersey and also a number of under-15 girls were taken out to be used for the Channel Islands in the Southern League, which clearly had a detrimental effect on the team,' he said.
'Because of that we lost handfuls of points. If we had had a full quota we would most likely have won the event.'
