Medals galore for Dacorum & Tring at the Herts County Athletics Championships

This was largely thanks to a record haul by the U17 men’s team who earned nearly half of the titles won by the club.

Sprinter Dom Ashwell won gold in both the U17 men’s 100m and 200m races, taking the shorter distance in 10.7s – a national class performance but, to his frustration, still leaving him outside the qualifying standard of 10.75s for the Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa in October as his time was wind-assisted.

Ashwell’s time for the 100m beat a long-standing record of 10.9s, in place since 1983, and his time of 22.25s for the 200m beat the record of 22.32s set in 2007.

Team-mate Jackson Cowans took gold in the 100m hurdles and the triple jump, while Michael Fryer won the pole vault, Daniel Hopper won the long jump, Jerome Lana the discus and Noah Malancinas the shot putt.

Noah also took silver in the javelin, while Sebastian Wadlow won silver in discus. Sprint star Chenna Okoh, in his first season in the U17 age group, took bronze in the 100m.

Adam Jolly, running in the U13 boys’ age group, won an impressive county title in the 1,500m in his first ever outing at the distance. He led from start to finish to cross the line in 4:57.31.

Two U15 boys, in their first year in the two-year age group, came away with well-earned medals: Ed Hopper won high jump silver while Thomas Fisher took silver in the 80m hurdles and bronze in the high jump.

The U20 men’s team came away with three golds, all from the jumping squad: James Weller won the pole vault and Joe Bayer took gold in both the long jump and triple jump, while Luke Redford finished second to Weller in the pole vault.

The senior men’s team won nine medals in total, seven of them in field events. Gold medals were won by veteran Trevor Ratcliffe in the javelin, Shaun Wall in the shot putt, Chris Line in discus, Josh Evans in long jump and Ben McGuinness in the 400m.

Wall and Evans took silver in the javelin and long jump, respectively, while Line came home with a bronze in the shot and McGuinness scored the bronze in the 800m.

On the ladies’ side, Alice King came away with a brilliant gold medal in the U15 girls’ pole vault, with team-mate Rachel King taking bronze in the discus.

Competing for the U17 ladies, Amber Carroll won gold in the women’s 300m hurdles, while Ann-Marie Davies and Laurette Wenborn took silver in the hammer and high jump, respectively, and Natasha Tenty won bronze in the hammer.

Caitlin Filby won the silver medal in the U20 ladies’ hammer, and Eleanor Thomas went home with the bronze in the pole vault.

Mike Dunphy, Dacorum & Tring’s middle distance coach, noted some impressive performances from his young squad, in addition to Jolly’s fantastic gold medal.

In the U15 boys’ 800m race, Kristian Imroth (2:22.93) recorded a PB by three seconds to finish fourth in his heat, while Joel Amos (2:56.71) ducked under three minutes for the first time to finish sixth in his heat;

For the U15 girls, Indira Patel (2:32.99) improved her PB by 20 seconds to finish fourth in her heat and advance to the final, where she finished eighth (2:41.36);

In the U17 women’s 800m race, Isabelle Amos (2:40.53) was not at her best after a bad fall in last week’s league match but still managed to finish fifth in the final.

In the U17 men’s 800m race, Rhys Rowlands (2:12.51) was just outside his best in finishing fifth in his heat, while Matt Renphrey (2:09.63) just missed out on the final, finishing sixth in his heat.

In other club news, Phillipa Lowe – a leading member of Dacorum & Tring AC’s sprint/hurdles squad – competed in the Loughborough International match, finishing a brilliant second in a new personal best and club record of 58.50s. This solidifies her place in the top-five in the UK rankings for 2015