Gold medals galore for county champions
Athletes excelled in track and field events as Newark Athletic Club secured success in the county championships.
Club members of all ages were in action at either the Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire county championships.
Among the medal-winning success stories were three members of the Sayer family.
There were multiple accolades for Luke, who won eight medals from nine events at the Nottinghamshire championships in the under-17 category.
He claimed gold and personal bests in the 400m and triple jump.
Luke also took silver in the 110m hurdles and pole vault, and bronze in the 200m, long jump, shot put and discus.
He narrowly missed out on a clean sweep of medals, finishing fourth in his other event, the javelin.
His mother, Lyndsey, became women’s county discus and javelin champion, throwing a personal best 24.98m in the latter.
Luke’s father, Dean, won silver in the veteran men’s javelin with a new personal best, finishing behind club member Craig Rodwell, who took gold.
Rodwell made it a hat-trick of golds with victory in the veteran men’s shot put and hammer.
Gold was also claimed by Katie Mackintosh in the under-20 women’s 400m hurdles.
Amelia Chrispin was in good form as she finished second in the under-15 1,500m, less than a second behind the winner.
Joseph Monk showed promise for the future by claiming silver in the under-13 1,500m.
Despite racing against boys up to 21 months older, the ten-year-old pushed hard in the final to finish second.
He finished ahead of team-mate Josh Clee, who was fourth.
Clee was unfortunate to finish without a medal as he was also fourth in the 75m hurdles and long jump.
Tim Bagguley won silver in the men’s 2,000m steeplechase and Chris Ward took bronze in the under-20 1,500m.
Ava Marshall, competing in the under-15 girls’ discus for the first time, gained bronze. She also competed in the 200m, long jump, javelin and shot put.
Zoe Smith missed out on bronze in the final of the under-13 girls’ 70m hurdles as she finished fourth.
Gold was won by North Muskham javelin thrower Annabel Peach, of Notts Athletic Club, with 40.49m.
At the Lincolnshire County Championships, twins Tilly and Lauren Owens became multiple county champions in the under-17 girls.
Lauren pipped Tilly to gold in the 300m hurdles, while Tilly was the gold winner ahead of Lauren in the 80m hurdles.
Tilly also won the long jump. Triple jump and pole vault golds were achieved by Lauren, who also finished second in the javelin.
Their older sister, Amber, is the under-20 women’s 1,500m champion.
Linton Taylor, who won the senior men’s 5,000m, ran a personal best 14mins 26.44secs over the same distance the previous evening at the BMC Grand Prix, Manchester.
