Medals and sunshine in Hampshire
FOUR senior medals and a wider count of 15 Guernsey podiums made for a promising first half to the Hampshire Track and Field Championships weekend.
For some the annual trip to Portsmouth’s picturesque Mountbatten Centre is the pinnacle of the season, for others a stepping stone to bigger competitions.
But medals, as were widely achieved on a sun-kissed Saturday, are always welcome.
Three of the senior successes came from expected sources – Rhiannon Dowinton’s sprint hurdles gold, plus Jordan Kelly and Sofia Mella’s medals in the horizontal jumps – but Alice Hunt’s high jump silver was a quite different story.
Hunt had seemingly left athletics after a devastating injury before Gibraltar 2019, but she suddenly returned just over a month ago.
It was less about coming second out of two athletes with a 1.50m clearance, more continuing her fast progress towards her 1.61m best – and beyond?
‘I’m happy with the progress I have been making,’ she said.
‘I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and seeing if I can get back to where I was.’
Hunt now ‘totally’ wants to compete at Guernsey 2023.
‘I’m not far off anyway, so I’m definitely aiming to get the standard [1.52m] and probably the A [1.56m].’
Island Games 100m hurdles champion Dowinton claimed her first senior county title by running 15.61sec. into a modest headwind.
Although Kingston U20 Ella Manning edged her in a combined ages final, the Sarnian finished top senior.
Long jumper Kelly showed glimmers of his best form with a 6.72m leap – just 6cm short of Winchester’s winning Sam Adams. Importantly, it is his best result since his pre-pandemic shattering of the 7m barrier.
In the triple jump, Mella landed bronze after just missing her own pre-pandemic best with 10.75.
Nix Petit’s brave run in the 1,500m made for an exciting close call – she stormed to a 3sec. lead through 300m and despite suffering from this eager start, she later rallied for fourth and a 4-50.27 PB.
Discus thrower Tom Brierley and triple jumper Holly Drake also finished fourth, while Petit’s 1,500m colleague Emma Etheredge placed fifth in a new PB, as did Toby Mann in a sweltering 5,000m.
Guernsey also claimed junior golds through Emil Friedrich and Darcey Hodgson.
Friedrich headed a top-and-tailing of the U13 boys’ 200m podium, triumphing in 27.97 as Wilf Dorrian took third in 28.84.
Multi-eventer Hodgson defied recent injury to edge the 75m hurdles in 12.25, leading in Winchester’s Lucia Bertacchini by 0.02sec.
