Opening the season in style
DYLAN Stoneman opened his season in style at the Bill Whistlecroft Open meeting at Yeovil, while the Maxwell family also enjoyed the long Easter weekend.
This popular meeting was held over two days on Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday, so that allowed teenager Stoneman the opportunity to race twice with a 1,500m steeplechase on Saturday and a 3,000m on Monday.
Stoneman, who is coached by Mark Thomas at Team Bath AC, enjoyed the perfect start with victory in the chase in a time of 4mins 40.74secs to slash over 20 seconds from his previous best which he ran in the under-15s age group in 2019.
That is also the quickest time in the UK and the South West for his age group this year so far which is encouraging for Stoneman, though there is sure to be a lot of action to come when his rivals start to race.
Forty-eight hours later, Stoneman returned to the Yeovil track to win the second heat of the 3,000m in a time of 9:18.65, which was a fine effort for his debut at the distance – and third fastest in the South West this year.
Just ahead of Stoneman and second fastest in the region is clubmate Harry Maxwell. Maxwell went in heat one of the 3,000m and clocked a time of 9:06.45 to finish fifth overall and clip six seconds off his PB set at a floodlit meeting in Swindon last November.
Harry wasn’t the only member of the family to enjoy the benign spring weather. Twin Joshua went in the 1,500m and dug in deep against a good field to finish tenth with 4:36.79 and shave 0.3secs off his 2021 best.
Last but certainly not least, younger sister Sophie, who is in the under-13s age group, stepped onto the track after a successful cross country season and clocked a very creditable time of 5:13.93 to win the 1,500m race 2 on her debut at the distance. As an indicator of the quality of that run, it immediately put Sophie second in the
South West Rankings and 14th in the UK for under-13 girls.
Sprinters usually need a few more races to get into their stride – and a little more warmth wouldn’t go amiss – so PBS aren’t so likely until later in the season. Nonetheless, several Team Bath athletes opened their campaigns with a run-out to shake off the winter heavy training.
On day two, former Running Bath/ Chron competition winner Joe Carter clocked 11.8/22.46secs to finish runner-up in both the 100m and 200m with clubmate Femi Akinbobola just behind in both races.
Thomas White had a double cause for celebration with PBS of 46.24secs in the 300m and then 2:18.87 for the 800m, both on Easter Monday.
Young athletes Oliver Mowat and Charlotte Fletcher also impressed. Mowatt (under-15) recorded a PB of 13.14secs for the 100m while newcomer and fellow under-15 Fletcher, in her first competition for the club, showed promise with 16.72secs for the 75m hurdles and 15.28secs in the 100m.
Mia Bates ran a PB of 65.72secs to finish fifth in the 400m hurdles and Ricardo Reyes clocked a PB of 54.39secs for the 400m.
In his first season of throwing the 800g javelin, junior Sam Walker added 40cms to his PB with a throw of 47.95m, while also in the field, under17 athlete Ciara Galvin equalled her PB of 4.70m in the long jump and cleared 1.45m in the high jump.
Talented all-rounder Alice Wilson also had a busy weekend as she tackled the shot, high jump and 80m hurdles on Saturday then returned on Monday for the 100m, long jump and javelin, all good preparation for her first outdoor pentathlon of the summer.
IN the Yeovil Easter Bunny 10k road race, Team Bath’s Peter Grist finished a fine runner-up in a time of 33mins 10secs, just ten seconds behind winner Michael Parrott of Running For Time.
The athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath