News Archive

The England Athletics event for U23, U20, and U18 male and female athletes, was held in Bedford 16/17th June. The event is open to Celtic athletes, thus is a British Championship event. Standards of competition are very high. The Bedford event is also Trial competitions for Great Britain teams in European Championships at U18. U20 and U23 age groups. Athletes besides finishing on the podium at Bedford, must also have achieved the standards set in their events, in order to gain selection to GB teams.

A number of Cardiff athletes were successful at Bedford with podium places.

U23

Joseph Reid 800m 1.51.89 1st in a tactical race. Joseph finished the fastest down finishing straight.

Jac Palmer Hammer Throw 67.29m 1st. Jac continued his fine current form in retaining his title won in 2017.

Richard Dangerfield Javelin Throw 60.05m 3rd. 

On Tuesday 19th June the 3rd meeting of the 2018 series Cardiff AAC Young Throwers Invitational Competions took place. It started last year as a developmental platform for young throwers in Cardiff AAC, in order to hone their skills, and provide more local meetings.

The initial competition in August 2017 involved 11 competitors in Hammer and Discus events. The latest event attracted a total of 24 competitors in Discus, Hammer and Javelin events.

A number of standout performances were noted during the evening. All Cardiff athletes unless stated

Ethan Witchell Discus U13B 33.19m personal best, a new U13B Club record, and No1 ranked in UK. 

Cassey Grimwade DiscusU17W 33.15m personal best, and ranked No1 in U17W Wales as a first year U17W.

During the month of June, Welsh Athletics sent a number of small teams to events in Europe, for experience in European competition. The experience will help those athletes, who will be competing in the England U23 and U20 Championships. And British Athletics Seniors Trial competitions, held over this coming weekend of 30th June and 1st July in Birmingham.

Geneva, Switzerland 9th June.

Cardiff's Sam Gordon was 5th in 100m with 10.56secs. Owen Smith was 6th in heat of 400m with 46.72secs. James Vincent was 5th in the senior mens 1500m, with a new personal best time of 3.53.1secs

Leiden, Netherlands 9th June

In the 3000m s/c Cardiff's Ieuan Thomas was 2nd with a new personal best time of 8.30.16, his time meets the British Athletics time standard, in 3km s/c for the European Senior Championships, to be held in Berlin/Glasgow from 2nd to 12th of August.

A small Welsh team of young throwers were invited to an International Throwing competition held in Almada Portugal. Throwers U23 and U20 competed against throwers from Denmark, Portugal and Spain.

Cardiff's Jac Palmer (U23) Hammer, best throw of 68.23m was a pb, a new club record, and is the third ranked (U23) in UK.

Jay Morse competed in Discus event as guest (U18) in Abrantes Portugal, a competition between Portugal and Spain. Jay's  best Discus throw of 57.44m was a pb, and a European Youth Qualifing standard, for European U18 Championships later this year.

Ffion Palmer competed in Hammer in same event at Abrantes, with her best throw of 48.22m.      

In the IAAF Diamond League, Bislett Games 1500m on 7th June. Jake Heyward finished 9th in the senior men's race, running 3.39.84. Jakes time is the third ranked of all time on the UK U20M 1500m list. A new Welsh U20M record, and broke his existing club record by 3secs.

The IAAF World U20 Championships take place in Tampere Finland 10th July to 15th July 20 days to go. Competition will be extremely tough in 1500m, from African runners, and others including from Jakes European 1500m rival Jakob Ingebrickson Norway who was 3rd in same race in Oslo finishing 3rd in 3.36.06 a 3secs improvement, and stays No1 ranked U20M 1500m in Europe. 

Looking at the current IAAF U20M 1500m ranking list. Leader Ethopian 3.31.63 2nd/3rd 3.34, 4th 3.35 are Kenyans and Ethopians. Jakob has 5th best time. Watching Jakes race on TV could see he can easily run fastest than in Oslo. Championship races are totally different to races, where time is the important thing, like BMC meeting in UK. Tactics are important especially in heat races.

Jake has a great record in Championship racing, will be interesting to see how he gets on, good luck Jake.   

Match 3 of the Welsh SL was held in Swansea in warm breezy conditions. The Welsh SL includes U17/U20/SM/SW athletes taking part in events. There have also been 8 non scoring athletes taking part in Welsh SL from outside Wales, representing clubs not in Welsh SL.

At Swansea, 9 clubs closed teams. Once again Swansea (1st) 54 athletes, Cardiff (2nd) 45 athletes taking part, dominated team positions. Athletes taking part in league events are under no pressure, thus is good for younger athletes development, to try other events, or senior athletes with further competitions within easy reach in South Wales.

Cardiff's Larry Ryan U20 won the 3km in 8.49.27 breaking the Welsh SL U20 (2010) record.  Rebecca Chapman followed up her UKAWL LJ winning 6.30 performance, improving to another winning performance with 6.36 a Welsh SL SW record, previously held by Cardiff's Gillian Regan (6.18) 1981. Jac Palmer in SM Hammer, winning throw of 66.55. broke a 5 year old SM League record by Cardiff's Matthew Richards 64.17 (2013).       

On another very warm day, the second Welsh Junior League match took place at Cardiff Met Uni track, home to Cardiff Archers team. In a close match with some good results from Cardiff team members, highlight was the U15B 4x100 Relay team winning their race in a new League and club record of 46.44. Unfortunately there are no Welsh or National records for this age group.

Relay team. Ben Vincent, Thomas Charles, Luca Logue Fomseca, Lewis Rochfort Shugar.

In Power of 10 ranking list, their time is ranked 2nd in UK. Well done boys, and Team Manager Mark Vincent.

The League title is a two horse race between Cardiif Archers and our club. The Welsh JL includes U11, U13, and U15 male and female age groups. In past seasons the club struggled to field teams in U11 and U13 age groups, that has changed with pro active club team managers now able to field stronger teams, closing the points gap between our team and the Archers, who are very strong in these age groups.    

Cardiff's Womans team appeared with our BAL mens team in Cardiff International Sports Campus. Sharon Heveran Team manager reported before the match that Cardiff had a strong team, Sharon was proved right with our womans team winning the opening match by 20pts. the team was a mix of experienced senior athletes and youthful members of club. An example was in the 1500m with Ffion Price SW winning A race in 4.23.97, and U20 Kiara Frizell winning B race in 4.31.61. Rebecca Chapman Commonwealth Games athlete, won the long in a seasons best of 6.30. Sally Peake joined Cardiff from Birchfield Harriers, won the Pole Vault 4.00, and Megan Hodgson 1st in B PV. Sally Peake also came second in the Triple Jump A 11.32, with Eliza Durall 2nd in B Triple Jump in 10.42. Another example of youth and experience athletes was in the 3km with U20 A runner Abi Fisher 3rd, and senior woman Lucy Marland winning B race in 10.05.27. Lucy is returning to competitive running following a long injury issue.

Charlotte Wingfield had a busy day 3rd A 100m, 200m A 1st and member of 2nd place 4x100 team. In high jump more good team points were earned with A High Jump 2nd Hannah Tapley 1.70, and Lauren Evans 1st in B High Jump. So it is easy to see that many good team points were being achieved across many events.

Following the teams fine 3rd place in the first meeting, expectations were for a similar result at our home fixture, unfortunately that was not the case, prior to meeting the team was missing a number athletes, but still hoped to finish in top 4 teams. Our 6th place team finish means that the next fixture in Bedford on 7th July, will be key to consolodate the teams position in the Premier League. Hence a good team turn out for match will be necessary.

The match was held in beautiful warm weather, with the Paracute display Unit dropping onto stadium infield as planned at 11am before the meeting started. Besides the usual food and drinks units at stadium, the Welsh Guards had a stand, and there were units for use by children. Many people sat on the grass at the Dome end of stadium, enjoying the weather and as usual, the water jump in the steeple chase races.

The match included the UKAWL Division 1 teams, that included our senior womens team. It was an added bonus for spectators with so much action happening throughout the meeting.