Two gold, three silver and one bronze medal at BUCS
The British Universities & Colleges Sport Outdoor Athletics Championships held in Bedford between 30th April and 2nd May saw many superb performances from TVH athletes. The 2016 outdoor season has got to a fantastic start as athletes set personal bests, two new club records and win two gold, three silver and one bronze medal.
Clieo Stephenson in her final year at university became BUCS 100m champion for the first time with a new lifetime best time, 11.79, having looked the outstanding athlete in the heats on day one when running 11.76 with 2.5 m/s wind.
One of TVH’s new star athletes is high jumper Pippa Rogan. Pippa in her first indoor competition earlier this year set an indoor club record and in her first outdoor competition of the season in Bedford she went even higher, jumping a fantastic new personal best of 1.77m to claim the gold medal by 7cm and a new club record. Also making the high jump final was Annabelle Bates who was 1cm off her personal best, finishing in a good 5th with 1.64m.
Lia Stephenson and Montana Jackson had another exciting triple jump competition. Montana set her longest series of outdoor jumps ever as she finish in a great 2nd place in the final, with Lia close behind in 3rd place.
Danielle Opara has also made her best ever start to an outdoor season in the shot putt with her 14.20m in the final to collect another awesome silver medal.
Having recently returned from a successful warm weather trip to America, Chris McAlister is in the form of his life and improved from a good 5th place from last year to a fantastic silver medal this year and just 0.11s away from being crowned champion.
In the longest track event, Sarah Johnson was one of the favourites in the 10,000m having run a quick 10km time on the road this year. Unfortunately, Sarah was not feeling 100% but still had a strong run to finish 6th in a new club record time of 36.57.
In the pole vault TVH were unlucky not to pick up anymore medals as the final was abandoned halfway through the competition due to the windy conditions with Shannon Connolly back jumping well.
There were many other fine performances from TVH athletes including our busiest athlete of the weekend, multi-eventer Danny Burrowes, who took on the 200m, long jump, discus, javelin and shot. For his fine effort, Danny was rewarded with new lifetime best times/distances in the long jump, discus and javelin.
BUCS Outdoor Athletics Championship 2016, Bedford, Results
100m SW Heat 7 1st Clieo Stephenson 11.76 (w.2.5); Semi-Final 1 1st Clieo Stephenson 11.88; Final 1st (GOLD) Clieo Stephenson 11.79 PB
200m SM Heat 7 1st Mark Dyble 22.55; Heat 6 7th Danny Burrowes 24.05; Mark Dyble Semi-Final 2 5th 22.83
400m SM Heat 5 6th Andrew Adjube 53.94
10,000 SW Final 6th Sarah Johnson 36:57.83 New Club Record
10,000 SM B Final 8th Chris Thomas 33:59.24 PB
100m Hurdles SW Heat 5 3rd Tayla Benson 15.06; Semi-Final 3 6th Tayla Benson 14.94
400m Hurdles SM Heat 2 1st Chris McAlister 51.73 PB; Final 2nd (SILVER) Chris McAlister 51.33 PB
3000m Steeplechase Heat 2 8th Robert Vallance 9:59.44 PB; Final 13th Robert Vallance 10:13.25
High Jump SW Pool 1 1st Pippa Rogan 1.61m; 5th Annabelle Bates 1.61m; Final 1st (GOLD) Pippa Rogan 1.77m PB & New Club Record; 5th Annabelle Bates 1.64m
High Jump SM Pool 1 10th Michael Adekunle 1.86m
Pole Vault SW Pool 2 2 =3rd Shannon Connolly 2.90m; =3rd Shannon Rapacchi 2.90; Final Abandoned – no result.
Pole Vault SM Pool 1 10th Erik Tropp 3.55m
Long Jump SW Pool 2 14th Marissa John 4.57m
Long Jump SM Pool 3 9th Danny Burrowes 6.13m PB
Triple Long Jump Pool 1 1st Montana Jackson 12.00m; 2nd Lia Stephenson 11.96m; Pool 2 9th Marissa John 10.24m; Final 2nd (SILVER) Montana Jackson 12.50m PB; 3rd (BRONZE) Lia Stephenson 12.34m
Shot Putt SW Pool 2 2nd Danielle Opara 12.82m; Final 2nd (SILVER) Danielle Opara 14.20m
Shot Putt SM Pool 2 Danny Burrowes 13th 9.14m
Discus SM Pool 2 Danny Burrowes 15th 24.12m PB
Javelin SW Pool 2 8th Ellie-Mae Stokes 32.85m
Javelin SM Pool 1 8th Danny Burrowes 39.52m PB