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Nuneaton Senior and U20 Open
August 2 2020
Report – Peter Coote
A small group of Stratford athletes made the trip to Nuneaton for their latest pilot open event, as athletics in England tries to find a way forward in these difficult times.
On the track we were represented by both the young and the old.
Despite having to cope with the unfamiliar challenge of running the whole of the 800m in lanes, David Jones seems to be rolling back the years, running a season’s best time of 2:48.96, just two seconds outside his PB set back in 2014.
With another couple of events this month, he is hoping for a new PB and to retain his current number 1 national ranking in his age group for this year.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Georgie Campbell and Emily Field were both running in the 800m and they both found the stagger difficult.
They were both drawn in lane 7 so were approximately 70 metres from the start line at the start of the race.
Georgie ran her usual superb race, finishing in a PB time of 2:18.29, knocking over a second off her previous best time of 2:20.00.
Emily was really nervous about having to run the whole race in lanes. She competed at Pingles a couple of weeks ago in the 400m and was disqualified for stepping on the line, a somewhat harsh decision.
She ran a tidy race in 2:22.96. Emily then ran the 400m in a time of 61.66, just over a second off her PB of 60.2. An impressive performance considering she had run in the 800m earlier.
Imogen Sheppard also competed in the 400m, finishing in a time of 58.30, which is a season’s best and just 0.64 off her PB. Her father and coach Mike Sheppard said ” Imy was happier with this run compared to her first outing. If she had someone to chase down in the last 100 she could have gone quicker I think.”
In the field, Paula Williams returned to Nuneaton to compete in the shot and javelin, both of which were Virtual World Masters events
In the shot she put in a consistent set of throws, finishing with 11:22m, just 11 cm behind her PB set in March this year.
In the javelin, she had to adapt to cope with a strong headwind and finished with a best throw of 35.66m, a season’s best.
Peter Coote picked up the javelin for the first time since the British Masters Championships in March and, despite the difficult conditions, threw a season’s best of 29.96m, a new club record for his age group.
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