A year on from the London Olympics, the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games took place over the weekend at the Olympic Park and Blackheath & Bromley are very much part of the legacy with four of its members taking part.

First up on Friday was Adam Gemili in an all domestic field in the 100 metres B race. The European Under 23 champion did not have the best of starts but powered through to pip Sutton’s Harry Aikines-Ayreetey on the line with both timing 10.16. This was a seasons best for Adam by two hundredths of a second. Harry contests the 100 at the World Championships in Moscow in two weeks time while Adam goes in the 200 metres.

Joining them in Russia will be Dina Asher Smith, who at 17 is the youngest member of the Great Britain Senior party. As European Junior 200 metre champion she will be a great asset to the squad and showed this as she was part of the GB 4x100 team who ran the fastest time by a British quartet for 12 years. They won the race in 42.69 and this was nominated as the British performance of the night.

The 4x100 did not go so well for the men on the Saturday as they did not get round. The change from Adam on leg two to James Ellington saw the baton fall to the track and the GB challenge was over.

Meanwhile in the field Lorraine Ugen leapt 6.44 in the long jump to finish in 3rd place just two centimetres off the winning distance, but some way further than Olympic Heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis Hill. At the same time Izzy Jeffs was finishing in 8th place in the javelin with a throw of 51.65.

Izzy will be in action for the Club this Saturday as Blackheath & Bromley make a small piece of Athletics History as they host the first ever UK Womens League match at Norman Park Track. It is not just a National League match, it is a Premier Division match featuring the top eight clubs in the country with many Internationals set to compete.

Among those returning to the Norman Park track where they trained and competed for B&B as youngsters will be Senior Internationals such as UK record holder for the 100 metres Montell Douglas, plus Club record holders Shaunagh Brown (Discus and Hammer) and Serita Solomon (100 hurdles and 4x100).

To add to the celebrations the Club will be providing a beer tent and BBQ. First field event is at 12 noon with the action starting on the track at 1pm. Admission is free.

At the same time the men will be competing in the final British Athletics League Division Two match of the season at Allianz Park (Copthall). Currently they top the table but only on match points from Gateshead as both have 20 League points. With third placed Notts on 19.5 any two of these three will be promoted.

The fact that the Senior Womens team is in the Premier Division is in no small part to the Club being National champions for eight years in a row. They will have the chance to make this a ninth occasion after the combined mens and womens team qualified for the UK Development League Upper Division National Final which takes place at Birmingham on the 8th of September.

Although a joint scoring event, the best mens and best womens teams on the day of the Final are regarded as the best in the land and will represent the UK in the European Champion Clubs Cup for Juniors the following season. Having won last year the women compete at Brno in the Czech Republic on the 21st of September to see if they can become champions of Europe. The last Southern Premier Division One match at Allianz Park saw the Club finish in third place on the day and this left them in second place overall to take one of the two automatic places in the Final.

Shannon Hylton returned from the World Youth Championships in fine form to win both the 100 and 200 metres in the under 20 age group, despite being an under 17. She was also part of the under 17’s winning 4x100 metre team along with her sister Cheriece, Maya Bruney and Vivien Olatunji.

Cheriece had earlier also stepped up an age group to win the under 20s 300 metres in 55.63 and she was also part of the winning under 17s 4x300 team with Leah Everson , Niamh Bridson Hubbard and Janae Galley.

It was a busy day for Jahisha Thomas who won both the under 20s 100 hurdles and long jump competitions with performances of 14.98 and 5.82 and she was also second in the triple jump.

More hurdles success came with Craig Morten winning the mens one lap event in 55.39 and Samantha Brown the womens in 62.95. The under 20 men enjoyed victory in the 4x100 metres courtesy of Ishmail Smith John, Javari Cameron, Alex Skipp and Kertis Beswick.

In the under 17s Vivien Olatunji won both the 100 and 200 metres which, taken with the sprint relay, gave her a hat trick of wins on the day. Middle distance success came with wins for Will Fuller in the 1500 and from Niamh Bridson Hubbard in the 3000 metres.

Further victories came from Aine Hurlock in the 300 metre hurdles and from Helena Coleman in the pole vault. Some of the Club’s youngest athletes were selected to compete at the Under 13s Inter Counties match at Kingston. A number of these achieved personal bests including Angus Harrington who timed 2.19.93 in the 800 metres and Mhairi Brooks and Antonia Alapafuja who ran 13.81 and 14.11 in the 100 metres. Angus was also 6th in the javelin with 32.50.

Eloise Locke was 2nd in the shot with 9.49 as well as coming 10th in the discus. Karina Harris was 3rd in the long jump with 4.58 and others in action included Dillon Robertson, Caelan Raju, Oliver Lucas Head, James Lancaster and Michael Eagling.

The previous weekend Michael was first home in the Family Anniversary Run over 2.5km at the Olympic Stadium. Not only did he win but he was greeted by one of Britain’s greatest ever runners Paula Radcliffe, who congratulated him on his performance.

Peter Tucker has continued his busy recent race programme with a win in the Club 5000 metre championship at Norman Park. He timed 15.43.7 with Alex Gibbins second in 15.50.6 and young Richard Webb third in 16.00.8.

Peter also recently won the Bewl Water 15 in 1.30.16 and with Fintan Parkinson in 15th and Len Crowder 52nd the Club were runners up in the team race. Peter Hannell was 8th in the penultimate Vets AC 5 Mile road race at Battersea Park. He timed 52.23 for the distance with David Hoben 11th in 57.46.

At the London Inter Club Challenge at Allianz Park, Shaun Lightman was 9th in the 5km in 30.57.

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