Sonnii Pine
Sonnii Pine
22 April, 2025
Sport

Easter weekend sees HY athletes scoop medals and PBs aplenty

Starting off a very competitive long weekend, Good Friday saw three HY Athletic Club members take on the Folkestone 10 miler. Stuart Piper was the first HY athletes home in a very impressive 1:03:54, Dave Verlander finished next in a strong time of 1:19:46 with Karl James completing this 10-mile course in 1:35:16.

HY Junior Athletes at the Sussex Road Relays

The Sussex Road Relays took place on Saturday at Preston Park in Brighton, juniors in teams of three race a mile lap before handing over the baton and Senior legs consist of a two-mile lap each. 

HY Athletic Club was out in force with nearly 60 runners taking part! First out were the under 11s and what a race, our Boys A team was first home securing the Gold medal in a collective time of 17:35 for the three miles, they were Edward Dixon (6:05), Michael Mansell (5:56) and Benji Pocock (5:51), also completing his one-mile leg was Arthur Pocock (7:16). 

The under 11 girls also ran brilliantly our first HY team back in third position and securing a Bronze medal was Starla Scott (6:33), Sophia Tarrant (6:49) and Ivy Buchanan (6:05). Our next team was Matilda Skelton (7:13), Bianca Fonseca (6:46) and Demi Morton (7:03), with Phoebe Sims (7:04) and Miley Wigmore (7:38) for many of our U11 girls this was their first experience of a club race and they absolutely did themselves proud.

Next to compete were the under 13 teams, Jenson Hensher (5:39), Henry Sully (5:51) and Noah Mayhew (5:44) finishing in 4th place, Ben Sims (6:18), Tommy Mills (6:11) and Theo Morton (6:46) and Xavier Bryndza (6:42) in his debut HY race. 

Coming home second for the under 13 girls was the team of Francesca Tarrant (6:26), Tera Buckland (6:00) and Amelia Skelton (5:45) securing a Silver medal, running very well in their team were Jessica Wilson (6:44) and Mia Lennard (6:22).

PBs all round at the Tonbridge Open L-R Izabella, Caitlin, Antalia, Sophie, Olivia and Katie
PBs all round at the Tonbridge Open L-R Izabella, Caitlin, Antalia, Sophie, Olivia and Katie Credit: HY AC

The under 15s were next, for the boys Zion Okojie (5:11) and Aiden Larkin (5:32) running superb times. The U15 girls had 3 complete teams and first back was Scarlett Dixon (5:38), Florence Tewksbury (5:52) and Isabella Buchanan securing the Gold medal for her team in the fastest leg of 5:14! The next HY team in was Kitty Morgan (5:48), Daisy Welch (6:20) and Ellen Gates (6:42) then Olivia Collins (6:21), Megan Hopkins-Parry (6:11) and Ava Morrissy (6:28).

Dave Verlander and Karl James at the Folkstone 10 mile race
Dave Verlander and Karl James at the Folkstone 10 mile race Credit: HY AC

With four team medals secured it was now down to the adults to complete their 2 mile legs, the Senior ladies teams went first and Imogen Matthews (11:13) with the fastest senior ladies leg, Ivy Buckland (12:45) and Sophia Collins (13:22) were the first HY team back in 6th place, Kayleigh Skelton (13:38), Sharon Mayhew (15:29) and Deb Read (15:28), with Lisa Buchanan (15:48) and Emma Welch (14:37).

The senior men were next up in this race it is a team of 4 all completing the 2 mile leg each. Ross Skelton was first to finish his leg in 9:33, handing the baton to David Ervine (10:16), Jon Hatch (11:19) and Alfie Johnstone (11:37) completed the team.

The masters teams were next to complete in age categories of over 40, 50 or 60, in both male and female race we had 2 teams competing for the 40-49 age category. The first team back was Carly Hopkins (13:20), Sophie McGoldrick (12:52) and with the fastest leg of the race Amy Dixon (11:38) securing the Gold medal for her team, Rachel Wigmore (13:23), Sonnii Pine (14:33) and Becky Mabon (14:12) finished in a strong 7th place.

Finally, it was the men's turn Stuart Piper (11:09), Barry Buchanan (10:44) and Steve Gates (10:49) gave it everything they had and secured 3rd place, Nick Styles (12:06), Terry Puxty (12:30) and Todd Fitz - Hugh (13:15) finished 13th in this highly competitive field.

Six team medals, 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze makes it the most successful championship event to date, and everyone gave it their all!

Zion Okojie was back racing just the next day, winning his heat at the Crawley Easter Sunday open. Zion competed in the 800m running it in 2:16 securing a new personal best by four seconds!

Easter Monday saw more HY athletes take to the track competing at the Tonbridge Open Isabella Buchanan competed in the 1500m in a time of 4:31:76 a new PB by nearly 4 seconds. Antalia Cole took on the 600m completing this in 1:47:04 a new PB. 

Competing in the 300m were Sophie Smith 44:80 PB, Katie Cole 47:00 PB, Olivia Henham 44:20 PB and Simon Basey 41:85. Lenny Cole competing for his 1st claim club at this event secured a 300m PB in 39:62 and completed his 150m distance in 18:56 PB. In the 150m more PBs were secured by Caitlin Rivers 22:01 PB, Olivia Henham 20:63 PB, Katie Cole 21:51 PB, Sophie Smith 20:76 PB, Simon Basey 19:68 PB and Mike West 17:65.

What a fantastic long weekend of results and achievements and a promising start to track season.