English Schools Championships

Louise takes Gold English Schools Championships - Sheffield 2000
Eve & Louise	Louise Watton took gold in the U15 girl's javelin on her third throw of 35.25cm. Throws in the competition were generally a little erratic as all the athletes appeared to struggle a bit with unpredictable gusts of wind in the stadium. The U15 competition took place on the Saturday morning, the second day of the championships, and Louise and her coach (Dad, Tim) had spent time watching throwers on the Friday and discussing the best tactic to deal with the tailwind gusts coming from the left. Louise had settled on a slightly increased attitude angle and a zero degree angle attack for her throws (ie aim high and throw "through the point") - to counteract the reduced lift effect of a following wind on the javelin.
Louise had to scrap this plan when throwers were finally led from the marshalling area after their nerve-wracking wait.... to the runway at the end of the stadium facing into the wind!! However, she remained calm and made use of her practice throws to experiment with the effect of the wind. In the end the many evenings throwing a variety of implements in all sorts of weather conditions during the winter and spring were probably of most value on the day. There is something to be said for training in less than perfect conditions.
Although naturally quite calm and collected, Louise also says the work she has recently done on shutting out her surroundings and remaining relaxed and focussed also helped a lot with the experience of her biggest competition to date - and the intimidating scale of the Don Valley Stadium. Well done Louise. Contibuted by Tim Watton	Coach (& Dad) Tim Watton

Alison Croad came in 9th in the Senior Women's triple jump with a jump of 10m50. Well done Alison.	Eve Serrao after a poor start played catch-up in the U17 women's 100m heats to qualify for a place in the semi-finals in which she produced a fine run to provide her with a personal best of 12.53s. Well done Eve.