Stonier goes continental

Invicta East Kent runner Matt Stonier will compete internationally this weekend. He will take part in the World Athletics Continental Tour in Belfast on Saturday. Stonier and Alex Millard took part in three races in the 1,500m race to get to the British University Championships final. Millard finished fourth in her final, which was won by Olympian Jess Judd, clocking just one second off her personal best in 4min17.74sec.

In his final, Stonier went ahead with 200m to go and won in a time of 3.46.56. Meanwhile, three Invicta athletes travelled to Tonbridge for their first Open meeting of the summer. Doug Noel produced a season’s best of 4.00m in the pole vault to come second in the senior men’s category. Layla Forrest finished fourth in a time of 14.21 in the 100m under-15 girls’ category. She backed that up with a personal best in the 800m of 2.38.68.

Seb Sanz-kozyra made his debut in the 800m and clocked 2.17.90 in the under15 boys’ category to finish with the fourth fastest time of the night for that age group.

Invicta athletes were well represented at the Watford Open Graded Meeting. Leading the team out was Jamie Keir in the under-20s 3,000m, finishing strongly in 8.36.79. He was closely followed in finishing time by Cole Gibbens in 8.38.41, who ran in a different heat. They were followed home respectively by James Akhurst 9.10.14, under-17 Adam Whitlock 9.12.15, Tom Storer 9.15.94, Joe Griffiths 9.21.21, and Ben Hall 9.52.03. The leading Invicta lady was Anna Weston in 10.11.65, followed by under-20s’ Lucy Procter in 10.56.46.

At the Kent Young Athletes League, despite having a small team, Invicta finished the day third overall with a lot of athletes finishing in the top-three in their events. The under-13s boys dominated the sprints and took the win in the 4x100 too and some great victories in the under-15s boys 1,500m race.

Last month, the first lot of action took place with the under-17 and under20 athletes in the Youth Development League. Some notable performances included a personal best from Scarlet Thomas-wright in the 100m with 12.46 and a personal best in the hammer for Amelia Lawton in her first year as an under-17.