THE WEEKEND of county championships is always a busy one for athletics clubs. Yate and District AC have athletes who qualify for Gloucestershire and Wiltshire as well as Avon, so officials were in action on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday at Yate was the Avon Championships and Yate athletes secured thirty gold medals, twenty silver and seven bronze. In achieving that there were 36 personal best performances and one Championship record.

This was achieved by Luke Ball, the extremely promising under-15 high jumper. His leap of 1.80m equalled those of Jack Moore and David Thomas, who took the honours in the under-20 event.

There was double gold for Rob Phillips in the senior men’s 100m and 200m. His times of 11.59 secs and 23.39 secs will have pleased him a great deal. Phoebe Havard matched this by winning both events in the under-13 age group.

Fiona Barkley, in the under-15 girls, had a good day, winning both 75m hurdles and the long jump with very good performances. Max Elliott, Mackenzie Davies and Isaac Cory were all impressive in the sprints, with times that show their potential for the future.

In the 400m, there were wins for Annie Lewis in the under-20 women and predictably for Josh Snook in the under-20 men.

Running with his younger club mate, Kane Lee took the senior men’s 400m with Tom Pallot only slightly behind him.

The field events are always good for Yate athletes and so it proved on Saturday. Jodie Dale looked impressive in the under-17 women’s javelin with a good winning throw of 32.84m.

Under the guidance of Sam Hillier-Smith, a good group of pole vaulters is coming along nicely. Liam Hillier won the under-17 men’s competition with a vault of 2.92. A day later, in the Gloucestershire championships, clubmate Ben Latham won that competition with a vault of 3.05m.

In all, Yate athletes brought home from Gloucester a total of eleven medals and achieved eleven personal best performances in winning them.

Sunday saw the action switch to Tidworth for the Wiltshire championships, where James Viner and Owen Merrett played out the latest round of their ongoing friendly rivalry.

They were also up against a very good Swindon athlete, who had to break the championship record to beat them. James was good enough for the silver medal, throwing the hammer 43.94m. Owen threw just over a metre shorter for the bronze.

Altogether, in Wiltshire there were ten Yate medals and five personal best performances. A very good weekend’s work.