Marlborough and District Junior Athletics club capped their Wessex League campaign in style, winning the fourth and final match at Andover on Sunday.
The victory saw MADJA finish joint fourth in the league of 20 clubs, a big improvement on last season’s 10th place. The club ended the season on 17 points, level with Camberley, and behind Basingstoke (20 points), Southampton and Team Kennet (19 points each).
On a day when many athletes were missing due to the school summer holidays, MADJA fielded a strong squad, finishing first in three of the six age groups.
The U13 boys were particularly dominant, coming first and second in almost every event. Leading the way was Rory Clark, who won the 100m in 13.3s, the 200m in 26.9s – a grade 2 performance – and the 1500m in 05:11.1.
Riley Booth won the 800m in 02:37.3, the discus with a throw of 18.22m and he came joint first with Harry Langhorn in the high jump, both clearing 1.25m. Kieran Short won the shot with a distance of 7.27m.
It was no surprise that the 4×100 relay team of Clark, Booth, Short and Samuel Deadman were comfortable winners, in a time of 58.1s.
Gemma Shepherd’s grade 2 run in the 1500m – she finished in 02:19.9s – helped the U15 girls to a win in their age group. Eve Tarring and Ashlen Sowerby tied for first place in the 75m hurdles in 13.6s, while Gabbie Painting was second in the high jump with 1.38m.
The U17 men topped their age group, thanks largely to their strength in the field events. Will Seward won the javelin with a throw of 43.22m and came second in the discus with a grade 3 throw of 33.0m and second equal in the high jump with 1.65m. David Cope was narrowly beaten to second place in the shot, with 10.87m.
Scott Martin cleared 1.55m to come joint first in the U15 boys high jump.
The event finished with MADJA first on 393 points, followed by Woking (321), Andover (315), Portsmouth (261) and Poole (124).
In the parallel QuadKids event, MADJA came fourth. The top-ranked boy was Daniel Sanders, who finished fifth overall, while Tess Mayer, the top girl, came sixth. MADJA’s girls finished 11th out of 21 teams in the QuadKids league, the boys 15th.
pic: by Neil Goodwin
Chance to recycle computers in amnesty
