Alder Valley Boys track meet next weekend, thought it was all over, but maybe not. Waiting to hear if Robbie is running, if he is we hope he’ll be doing the 1500m. Event to be held at Palmer Park Sports Stadium, Reading.
The Saturday after, winter season begins, kicking off with the AFD hosted Southern Road Relays at Rushmoor Arena. Going to be a hard year for the relays, Tonbridge have a lot of very good runners in the Boys U15’s.
The table below shows Robbie’s Track PB’s as they currently stand, details curtesy of www.thepoweroften.info
| Event | PB | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75 | 11.3 | 11.3 | |||
| 100 | 15.2 | 15.2 | 15.5 | ||
| 150 | 23.0 | 23.0 | |||
| 200 | 31.6 | 31.6 | 31.9 | ||
| 600 | 1:59.5 | 1:59.5 | |||
| 800 | 2:19.5 | 2:19.5 | 2:28.0 | 2:37.2 | |
| 1000 | 3:07.2 | 3:07.2 | 3:25.9 | ||
| 1500 | 4:35.0 | 4:35.0 | 4:55.5 | 5:02.09 | |
| 3000 | 9:53.56 | 9:53.56 | |||
| 5K | 19:46 | 19:46 | |||
| Parkrun (5K) | 18:02 | 18:02 |
Well that’s about it for track and field 2013, not much else to see or do. Robbie and Jade have disappeared with their Grandma and Grandpa Blogg for a week.
We may try to squeeze another open track event in over the summer, but all the leagues and county events are now completed. The next big race is the Southern Road Relays, to be held in Aldershot on the weekend of 21st and 22nd of September, then back in to Cross Country for another season.
The 2013/14 XC season will see Robbie competing for AFD in the bottom year of the U15 age group, much like he has done over the summer track season. The Schools and Club events split the age categories slightly differently, so he will be competing in the upper year of the Schools U15 age group which means for the next XC season his core focus will be on schools events, and in particular trying to get in to the England Schools XC team.
The race was combined across the three older age groups, U15, U17 and U20. Giving a little bit of competition to the boys.
Robbie finished 6th overall, and 3rd in the U15’s with James Beeks winning the U15 race in 4’19” gaining a new PB and Robbie coming in with a time of 4’36” (One second outside his PB). Team mate Harry Grace also just missed out on a new PB.
The Pack hit the 100m point on lap 1. Wessex League Match 4 1500m (U15, U17 & U20)
A late night run at Basingstoke track (Down Grange) was preceded by an early evening trip to Pizza Hut for Robbie and I. Nearly 12 hours later and I personally am regretting the chillies scattered liberally all over my Cajun Chicken Pizza.
The standing precedence of rain at Down Grange still stands, despite the race being in the middle of the driest July on record, and half way through a blazing heat wave, it still managed to rain, quite heavily for over 5 minutes.
Anyway, the running.
The Grand Prix is all about personal bests, the middle distance races are provided with Pace makers to try to assist with PB times.
A very tired looking Robbie (10pm) Hampshire Grand Prix 3000m U15 Winner
Robbie’s 3000m race set to start at 9pm, sees the lights on at the stadium as night time starts to fall. Unlike the 12 800m races that went on earlier in the evening, there are only 3 3000m races with Robbie running in the final race, results shown below. Finishing in a new Personal best time of 9:53.56 (Knocking 10 seconds of his previous PB) and winning the Saucony prize for U15B 3000m.
3000m Race 3 (Green entries = Personal Best Times)
| Name | Age | Club | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robbie Coupland | U15B | Aldershot Farnham & District | 9:53.56 |
| 2 | Daniel Cooke | U15B | Camberley & District | 10:00.51 |
| 3 | Bryn Smith | U17M | Aldershot Farnham & District | 10:03.86 |
| 4 | Mark Hayter | SM | Eastleigh RC | 10:08.47 |
| 5 | Steve Marcer | SM | Southampton | 10:19.81 |
| 6 | Archie Ives | U15B | Winchester & District | 10:22.30 |
| 7 | Chris Chambers | SM | Eastleigh RC | 10:29.55 |
| 8 | Matthew Jerrard | SM | Eastleigh RC | 10:31.01 |
| 9 | Lucy Rochford | U17W | Andover | 10:52.39 |
| 10 | Ellie Czura | U17W | City of Portsmouth | 11:12.53 |
| 11 | Neil Catchlove | SM | Unattached | 11:15.03 |
| 12 | Bethany Heddle | U17W | Camberley & District | 11:17.06 |
| 13 | Richard Heddle | SM | Camberley & District | 11:41.19 |
| 14 | Gemma Bigg | U20W | Basingstoke & Mid Hants | 11:52.80 |
Robbie and I did arrive at Basingstoke much earlier than his race, in fact we were in time to watch a number of Robbie’s team mates compete in a round of 800m races, with Billy Smith (U13B) Harry Grace (U15B) , and Stacey Burrows (U15G) getting PB’s. Stacey smashing her PB by 8 seconds and winning the U15 girls 800m prize.
AFD 800m Results (By Age Group)
| Name | Age group | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Billy Smith | U13B | 02:30.3 |
| Harry Grace | U15B | 02:16.8 |
| Stacey Burrows | U15G | 02:20.8 |
| Peony Myall | U15G | 02:26.6 |
| Lizzie Squibbs | U15G | 02:27.7 |
| Hannah Jacobs | U15G | 02:30.5 |
| Will Parrott | U17M | 02:20.5 |
| Evie Grice | U17W | 02:19.7 |
| Tamara Myall | U17W | 02:28.0 |
| Ben Watson | U20M | 01:59.0 |
| Tom Bowerman | SM | 01:55.0 |
| Nick Jacobs | SM | 02:12.4 |
| Charlotte Browning | SW | 02:05.1 |
| Sofie Kent | SW | 02:23.9 |
Another very hot day sees AFD take to track and field in the lower age group section (U13 and u15 age groups) of the Youth Development League for the final time in 2013.
Once again Robbie will be running B Stream in the 1500m and once again the race will be a combined field of A and B stream runners.
Tom Fitch (AFD) A stream retakes the lead from Robbie heading in to the bell, followed by another A stream runner, knocking Robbie back to 3rd overall, but still easily 1st in the B stream rankings.
Finishing positions are shown in the table below, updates to follow.
| Position | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | A | B | Time | Athlete | Club |
| 1 | 1 | 4’30”.5 | Sam Westerman |
Guildford and Godalming | |
| 2 | 2 | 4’31”.3 | Tom Fitch | AFD | |
| 3 | 1 | 4’41”.9 | Robbie Coupland | AFD | |
| 4 | 3 | 4’45”.6 | Josh Hall | Kingston and Poly | |
| 5 | 4 | 4’46”.5 | Jacques Cunningham Marsh |
Medway and Maidstone | |
| 6 | 5 | 4’52”.1 | Josh Eeles |
Horsham Blue Star | |
| 7 | 2 | 5’01.9 | Jack Payton | Medway and Maidstone | |
| 8 | 3 | 5’03.4 | Luke Triccas | Horsham Blue Star | |
| 9 | 4 | 5’13.7 | Reece O’Kane | Guildford and Godalming | |
The Junior championship targets single years, not the two year mix that the normal athletics championships target. So all athletes compete against children from their own school year, of course there can still be nearly a year difference in age at times but the playing field is definitely levelled out. Teams from each school district within Hampshire came together to compete against each other, and for individuals to compete for places in the Hampshire Schools Junior Inter Counties team.
Robbie ran in the year 8 (U14s) 1500m race, held at 13:30hrs and once again in blazing sunshine and record temperatures.
Hampshire Schools Athletics – Junior Championship U14 Boys 1500m
| Position | Time | Athlete | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4’32” | Alex Forster | New Forest |
| 2 | 4’35” | Robbie Coupland | Aldershot & District |
| 3 | 4’52” | Archie Ives | Eastleigh & Winchester |
Marlborough and District hosted Match 3 of the Wessex League on Sunday 7 July.
To swing things around a little Robbie competed in the Discus and the Shot Put (A first for both events) along with his usual 1500m. The weather conditions were ideal for a day down the beach, blue skies, blazing sunshine and a little breeze. Though perfect beach weather, not exactly suited for running especially when the 1500m is held at 12:30 at the peak of the days heat (28 degrees).
Robbie’s first event of the day, the discuss, saw him get two PB’s, which to be fare giving that he’s never done it before wasn’t hard.
Throwing a – 0000 b – 0000 c – 0000 (Waiting for confirmed distances)
So as the heat of the day builds Robbie starts to warm up for the 1500m the boys are lined up the gun goes and immediately a burst forward sees 3 boys taking the lead, Robbie sat on the shoulder of the leading runner with Hampshire School team mate Ben ? sat on Robbie’s shoulder. First 300m completed in a very quick 50secs setting the pace for a fast energy consuming battle. The first place runner starts to pull away, and despite a lot of sideline encouragement Robbie doesn’t seem to be able to step up the pace to keep up, and as they come in to the pen-ultimate lap, Ben steps up and passes Robbie, Robbie struggling for that little extra seems content top let him go, and slots in nicely behind him, but as they head on to the finishing straight running for the bell, Robbie finds a burst of energy and kicks early, catching and over taking ben who struggles to kick up the pace and as he passes the line Robbie kicks again, the gap between himself and Ben extending slowly but surely. The first place runner is still out there, some 15m in front and though the gap seems to close, it is hardly sufficient to make a difference. The final straight and Ben kicks to chase Robbie down but Robbie still has enough left and flies across the line 2 seconds in front of Ben.
It wasn’t until after the race that Robbie tells me the organisers had merged the u20 and U15 races together, the first place runner was running in the U20’s not the U15.
Robbie won in a new PB time of 4’38” in ferocious heat.
The day wasn’t complete though, not yet. A 3 hours wait for the Shot Put competition to start saw Robbie get 2 more PB’s (see Discus explanation).
So in the blazing sun of a British heat wave Robbie walks out of Swindon track proud to have achieved 5 PB’s in one day.
Today the whole of Calthorpe park spent the day out on the sports fields participating, cheering, eating and drinking. A bit like Picnic in the park with Athletics. 🙂
Unfortunately there is no 1500m on the day, the positions for 1500m are devised from the times completed during the PE lesson based heats, Robbie won the 1500 in a time of 4″54′ the school record still stands at 4’52” to be fair, Robbie didn’t put his all in as he was expecting a final otherwise I think he’d have smashed the record.
On the day Robbie had qualified for both the Javelin, and the 800m and Jade had qualified for the Shot Put in which she came 3rd overall for year 10.
WELL DONE JADE !!!
Robbie is not divulging his Javelin position, so I’m assuming it wasn’t particularly good, but the 800m was a different story. Although Calthorpe doesn’t have anyone that can come close to Robbie at 1500m there are a number of boys, that we believe to be quite good at 800m, so a race was expected. The first 300m or so showed some very aggressive running from 4 or 5 boys, Robbie pushing everything from the front with the others determined to keep up, but by the end of the first lap Robbie was starting to pull away. Robbie completed the first lap in an astonishing 65″ a pace that he couldn’t keep up, but which burnt out the opposition. The second lap completed in 74″, a somewhat more normal time saw Robbie winning the Year 8 2013 800m in 2’19” equalling his PB (set on track, with this race on grass) and beating the school record by 6 seconds.
For his performance at Sports Day 2013 Robbie won the Year 8 Boys Outstanding Performance Trophy. There is one boys trophy and one girls trophy issued per school year, so a total of 8 trophies per sports day. Congratulations to all the other winners.
Not much here yet, but keep your eyes open as I intend to fill it up fairly swiftly.
A taster picture of the AFD U13 Boys team, at the National XC event in Sunderland. Very snowy, very muddy and pretty darn cold.
National XC 2012
