ESAA Bronze and England call-up for Luke, as Team Blyth end T&F season with amazing C.E action

The track and field season finally concluded over the weekend, with a dramatic weekend of Combined Events action to close out the season in style.
 
We start our round up at Monkton Stadium, where the NECAA Pentathlon championships took place on Saturday. India Gorvett went in the U13 girls pentathlon, producing a consistent day with the highlight being a well-earned long jump personal best as she finished just outside the medals in 4th place. Alex Robson-Lamb was involved in probably the strongest ever U13 boys comp at these champs, and took PB’s in the shot put and 800m to take a fine bronze, with a club record score of 1493pts.
 
In the U15’s, sadly Fearne’s day ended early due to injury – but in the one event she did compete she was able to set an outdoor long jump PB. Amara O’Callaghan had a consistent day – and was rewarded with an overall pentathlon PB of 1490pts. In the U15 boys, Jacob Robertson secured his first ever NECAA medal following a strong competition. There were PB’s in the 80m hurdles and shot put, as he scored an overall PB of 1801pts to take bronze. Ben Compton also produced a solid competition, and finished just outside the medals. He scored PB’s in the shot put and hurdles on this way to an overall pentathlon PB. Our U17 team of Amber Wright and Hollie-Anne Sudder were the class of the field in their age group. Hollie scored a big PB in the hurdles to start her day well, before Amber produced a strong series of jumps and a great final 800m to take the gold, with Hollie taking silver after a great competition. Well done to all who took part on a grey and gloomy day at Monkton – enjoy your well earned rest!

Results
 
We now move to Stoke-on-Trent, which was the location for the ESAA Combined Events national finals – a prestigious event of the highest calibre. Having qualified from regionals, Luke Pichler went in the inter boys Octathlon, whilst we had a team of athletes in the inter girls Heptathlon. Abi Huntly, Isla Bell and Senna Gorvett lined up on the start line, although sadly Sadie Parker was not able to take part, which was a huge shame as she was top scorer from regionals. On Saturday, Luke started in fine style with 6.55m in the long jump to move into an early lead, before negotiating his most precarious events – the discus and javelin safely to remain in contention. Luke finished day 1 in the best possible fashion with a superbly paced 400m, to smash his PB with 52.47s to end day 1 in a strong position. For the girls, it was very much a mixed start. Isla was superb over her first few hurdles before dropping back, whilst Senna stormed to a heat victory in a new PB. Sadly for Abi, despite a storming start she landed badly off a hurdle mid race, causing a knee injury that would eventually curtail her weekend. High jump was next, with solid results for all, although Abi was forced to withdraw following the event due to her injury. Shot put again was solid for both Isla and Senna, before they finished day with the 200m as a lightning storm moved in.
 
Day 2 was a challenging affair – with heavy and persistent rain for most of the day making things very tough for athletes who were out in the field for hours at a time. Luke knew he needed a strong start to the day with two of his favoured events first up. He was brilliant in the 100m hurdles, securing a huge win in a fantastic time, before clearing a very good1.83m in the high jump in tricky conditions. Shot put was slightly below expectation, but Luke as sitting in a medal position heading into the 1500m. Luke knew what was needed to hold on to a podium place, and he went above and beyond, delivery a 10 second PB to secure bronze with a fantastic total of 5078pts. Following presentation, Luke was whisked off to the “International Room” to receive his England kit – as he will now represent his country at the SIAB International in Glasgow this Autumn. A massive achievement!
 
It was a really tough start to day 2 for Senna and Isla in the long jump, as they dealt with the worst of conditions and distances were not what they wanted. However they regrouped for the javelin,  with a huge PB for Senna to keep her inside the top 8. In the 800m, Isla gave it her all and it was her strongest event of the weekend as she picked up places in the overall competition. Senna went in the final race, and committed to a fast pace. She was rewarded with a great time, and a superb 7th place finish overall, up from 26th in 2023. All 4 four athletes were fantastic over the weekend, and it was great to see Abi stay and support her team-mates through to the end despite not being able to complete the event herself.

Results