Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Lawton hits gold standard on county stage
Invicta East Kent’s throwers showed real promise for the future at the Kent County Under-13 Championships. Gracie Lawton followed in sister Amelia’s success at the older age group championships earlier this year, both with sterling success in the throwing events. Gracie came away with a gold in the discus and javelin and bronze in the hammer. In addition, she picked up five personal bests across the weekend to cap an incredible performance. Meanwhile, Layla Forrest won the high jump and a bronze in the shot put, as well as a personal best in the 75m. She finished second in her 150m heat, just missing out on a place in the final.
New athlete Oliver Downs was in fine form over the weekend, winning the long jump and silver in the discus and shot put.
Luke Martin was second in his 200m, finishing fourth in the final with 27.86sec.
Lois Baisley finished fourth in her 800m heat in a time of 2min34.33sec, also finishing eighth in the 1,200m final where she took 10 seconds off her personal best. She also finished sixth in the high jump.
Nate Thompson was a fantastic fifth in the 800m final.
Invicta had an all-female representation at the Kent Relay Championships where Layla, Lois and Gracie finished fourth in the 3x800m and then teamed up with Niamh Gavin to form a strong team for the 4x100m, where they finished third in their heat and sixth in the final.
In the under-17 age group, Zoe Rogers, Amy Goodhand and Lorna Forbes bagged the gold in the 3x800 while Lorna joined sprinters Scarlet Thomaswright, Izzy Smith and Charlotte Henrich to form a bronze-medal winning team in the 4x100m.
The under-15 girls of Zoe Vallis, Jessica Broster and Jessica Stark finished third in their 3x800m heat, finishing fifth in the final, while Leila Azizi, Emily Cananur, Jenna Humphreys and Darcie Maple finished fourth in their 4x100m heat to qualify for the final, where they finished sixth. The 3x800m girls were joined by Georgine Kyte in the 4x300m, finishing first in their heat and fifth in the final.
Canterbury’s Doug Lucas, of Cambridge Harriers, ran 29.53sec - a championship best performance - for the M70 group in the 200m at the Kent County Masters Championships in Erith.