Yate – 22nd May 2022

A beautiful day filled with outstanding performances near the coast in Yate, hosted by Bristol and West AC, saw the start of the Midland Counties League division one campaign back to it’s pre-Covid format. Those that made the journey down outdid themselves in what was always going to be a tough match with a depleted squad going into the 2022 season.

Highlights of day were definitely the relays where the strength of Tamworth’s speed endurance squads paid off. Despite the men’s and women’s 4x400m squads both featuring 3 out of 4 athletes who had just competed in the 4x100m, both team excelled and won.

In the men’s track, Tom Ainsworth and Jolyeon Leavesley won the A and B 800m and both came second in the A and B 400m respectively. Ainsworth’s 800m winning margin was nearly 4 seconds ahead of second place with 1m 55.72s.

The women’s 400m and 800m athletes were on form too, with Isabelle Neville and Arantxa Middleton winning the 400m A and B races respectively, Kat Snowden second in the 800m A race, and Lottie McLaren winning the 800m B race.

Special mention to three ladies that covered 7 positions in the field, Isla Crameri in the Pole Vault and Long Jump, Sarah Williams in the Pole Vault and Shot Putt, and Hannah Evans who covered Hammer, Discus, Shot Putt and Javelin!

Sarah also went on to compete in both relays as cover for the injured Kat Snowden, to stake a claim for performance of the day. Other names to mention for that honour were Max Kent for his outstanding first attempt at 400m relay with his distance endurance to a lead which looked under threat from 200m to go. Paul Tasker is the other worthy name to mention for performance of the day, not only covering discus and javelin, but also filling some big Tamworth shoes in the 100m and 200m. These are the kinds of points that will no doubt play some part in the future of Tamworth’s recent division 1 status.

The lack of cover in a lot of events means Tamworth were last overall, but the atmosphere amongst the travelling few meant an enjoyable day out anyway.

Written by Greg Richards