The Abingdonian 2019

52 The Abingdonian Athletics The Athletics Club has had a fantastic season with a number of boys pulling on the pink and white vest for the first time, smashing personal bests and standing on the top step of numerous podiums. The Achilles Relays is always an early season highlight. The first meeting was held at Iffley Road in 1963 and has seen performances rank as all-time bests for school boy age groups. Arriving at the meet off of a strong cross country season, the junior (U15) middle distance team obliterated the field in the 4x800m, winning the Guy Butler Trophy in a time of 9.07. This was only 15 seconds off the all- time meet record. The senior middle distance runners backed up this performance, finishing with a bronze medal in the 4x800m in a time of 9.06. The junior sprint squad also showed a lot of promise, running a time of 51.3s in the final of the 4x100m. At the second relay meet of the season, The Radley Relays, the junior middle distance team once again stole the show with some impressive performances. In the medley relay (200m, 200m, 400m, 800m) both Abingdon teams finished on the podium, with one team only two tenths shy of the all-time record. First place went to Callum Aiken, Henry Channon, Thom Denning and Johnny James, while Stfano Rajasundaram, Harvey Vinton, Joshua Mensah and Will d’Arcy claimed the bronze. Special mention must go to Thom Denning who ran an impressive 400m time of 56s. The 4x100m team also finished in third place, in a time of 48.7s. As the season progressed, the boys ran, jumped and threw themselves into form. Personal bests were set at Stowe, Marlborough and Harrow, culminating in 11 boys being selected to compete at the County Championships at Horspath athletics track. Congratulations must be extended to the boys listed below, who represented the Vale District. A special mention must go to Johnny James and Henry Channon, who were selected to run in the 1500m at the English Schools National Final, an event that brings together the best athletes in the country and is held at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Elliot Birkbeck