Reports by Darren Hatton
Some of Thanet AC’s finest U11 athletes took centre stage when they competed in the County Sportshall Decathlon. In a field of 131 boys and girls each athlete competed in 10 different Sportshall events to accumulate points in a bid to place as high as they could on the day. More importantly this event is also used to pick a squad of 15 boys and girls to determine who will represent Kent at the Regional Sportshall Champs in February.
In the Boys Decathlon competition Cooper Ralf (year 5) was our highest placed athlete in 17th overall with personal bests in the Standing Long Jump (1.80m), Speed Bounce (46), High Stepper (13.7s), Chest Push (5.00m) and Javelin (13.00m).
Our second boy competing was Rios Mod’el Tarjomani (year 6) who placed 61st. Rios also had an array of personal bests in the Speed Bounce (31), Javelin (7.00m) and a huge personal best in the Standing Triple Jump (4.71m).
In the Girls Decathlon competition our top place finisher was Kitty-Rose Hatton (year 6) who narrowly missed out on a Bronze medal with a 4th place finish overall. She had personal bests in the Balance Test (1st overfall with 60), Standing Long Jump (1.77m), Speed Bounce (1st overall with 59) and Chest Push (5.00m).
Esme Gabriel (year 6) finished 2 places behind in 6th place with personal bests in the Speed Bounce (52) and Standing Triple Jump (5.25m).
Next we had Isabelle Shuai (year 6) who finished in 18th place overall. Isabelle had personal bests in the Standing Long Jump (1.85m), Speed Bounce (40), Javelin (9.00m) and Standing Triple Jump (5.40m).
Close behind was Chloe Figgins (year 5) in 20th place. Chloe had personal bests in the Balance Test (1st overall with 60), Standing Long Jump (1.73m), Speed Bounce (49) and Standing Triple Jump (4.92m).
Alice Tye (year 5) finished 3 places behind in 23rd overall. Alice had personal bests in the Balance Test (51), Chest Push (4.00m) and Standing triple Jump (4.95m).
Daisy lee finished in 34th place overall. Daisy had personal bests in the Balance Test (53), Standing Long Jump (1.54m) and Chest Push (5.25m).
Later that evening the selectors sent out 30 emails to athletes selecting them for the Kent team, and we are proud to announce that we managed to have 3 at Thanet AC receive those emails.
– Kitty-Rose Hatton was selected again after competing for Kent in this event last year as a year 5.
– Esme Gabriel, after a strong showing today, gained her debut County selection.
– Alice Tye received her debut Kent selection a year young as a year 5.
These girls will now have a last training session as the Kent squad before travelling to Burgess Hill on the 16th February to compete against 7 other Counties to try and qualify for the National Sportshall Finals in April.
U11 coach Darren Hatton said: “This is such a huge achievement for these 3 girls to compete for their County at the Regional Finals in February, but all 8 athletes were at their best today and would have made the Kent selectors jobs a difficult decision. Both the boys and the girls events were of super high quality, and for our athletes to rise to the occasion like they did shows how far they have come.”
Shimmen-Smith Takes Indoor PB Hat-trick
Bethany Shimmen-Smith marked her season opening competition with three Indoor personal bests in a great weekend for her at the London Indoor Games at Lee Valley.
She started off on the Saturday with a 4.61m result in the long jump which surpassed her best jump indoors from 2023. Her second event was the 200m where she flew round the track in a time of 28.42s to knock down her indoor personal best of 28.78s from last season.
On the Sunday Bethany was competing in the sole event of high jump where she has been working on a lot of technical improvements recently. So when she added 7cm onto her indoor lifetime best to finish the competition with a 1.45m clearance it was clear that she was happy with her weekend’s work.
Although this will be her first season as an U20 athlete Bethany will now prepare for the County Indoor Champs in March. Then she will focus her attentions to the challenge of competing at the National Combined Events Champs in July and the English Schools Combined Events in September.
Coach Darren Hatton said “It has been a difficult start to the season for Bethany with her not being able to train at our home track, so we have had to train her over an hour away at the next nearest track once a week and then also offsite at local facilities, even in the inclement weather that we have had.
“Obviously this is not ideal, but at least this gives her the confidence that she is still making the most of these less than ideal circumstances and progressing very nicely indeed. The season is looking bright for her so it’s now back to the grind and prepare for the County Champs in March.”
Chair, Julien Lawton said “Bethany had an amazing weekend of competition. We welcome more budding Beth’s to the club, further information can be found via our website www.thanetac.co.uk“
