Skip to main content

Summer of Sprint for Philippa

With lockdown leaving many training facilities unavailable, 2020 was an incredibly tough year for Philippa. It was clear that the chances of combined events were going to be very slim due to restrictions on high jump beds & long jump pits, plus access to hurdles was also very tricky. Between her & Geoff, the decision was made early in lockdown to make 2020 a Summer of working on speed.

Training was tricky in lockdown with most tracks closed but Philippa joined the throng at Silksworth or trained in our street or in the back garden - skipping has been the new phenomenon and the back garden has an ideal skipping square. We're also blessed with plenty of hills,  so hill training is nice and easy in Lumley. 


So, onto the performances. Competition options were very slim in 2020 and Philippa only competed at Darlington and Morpeth - two tracks that aren't ideal as Darlington is falling apart and both can be a bit windy. Philippa hadn't competed at Morpeth since she was a first year U13, where we enjoyed a great NEYDL day when she was at Houghton Harriers.


Philippa competed over 3 distances outdoors in 2020 - 100m, 150m & 200m.



We'll start with the 200m first and Philippa had two runs at the distance and on consequentive weekends at Darlington and Morpeth.  Her pb had stood at 25.94 seconds and that was back in 2017. At Darlington she ran 25.5 seconds and the following week at Morpeth, she ran 25.48 seconds - big improvements on her times from the past couple of years. 

150m feels more like a fun distance to run as races are few and far between.  Philippa's previous pb sat at 19.28 seconds and she ran 18.94 seconds at a very chilly Darlington on the 10th October. Her time saw her ranked 16th in the UK across all age groups.

The real success was in the 100m though. Having her previous pb questioned by Power of 10 from 2019, she's had a determination to prove that her 12.36 second time was no fluke. In late August,  she ran 12.45 seconds and was disappointed with the time and she knew she could be faster. She then competed at Darlington on the 26th September & had a stormers, with a hand timed 12 seconds dead - she was delighted and the time saw her ranked 9th in the UK in the U20W age category.



All in all, she's happy with her outdoor season of sprinting & who knows what 2021 will bring - might even be some hurdles,  you just never know.........

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Scrap Vans to Ticketmaster.....

A bit of a doubler here on the old blog today as there's a couple of things on my mind at the moment. So let's start with scrap vans.  Is the emergence of the scrap van just a County Durham phenomonan, or are they region or even nationwide ?  There certainly seems to be a huge number of them around our little it of County Durham and not a day goes by when there's not one in our street.  Amazingly, when I was out for a run yesterday morning, I saw 3 of them and I was out just over an hour.  Is there really that much scrap around that it's keeping them all in business, who knows !  I know that there's a lot of them around Easington Lane and that there possibly not the sort of people that you'd mess with, but I still don't see where the money is and they must cover an awful lot of miles.  I'm not really that sure that many of the vehicles are quite that roadworthy either as they always look quite mature and seem to have various bits hanging off from all s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Funny Old Game

Some say that Football is a funny old game, but after today's Toon result, I have to agree. Off we trotted to St James Park today thinking that a win would be easy - the Toon have been very good in the last couple of games, especially at home and Sunderland have been poor, despite the managerial change, the performance at Chelsea wasn't great and the same old defensive frailties were there for all to see. In the first half we made some decent chances and looked the better team and we forced Mignolet into some good saves, but then the unbelievable happened and Sunderland scored on the break.  The impressive Sessegnon gave them the lead with a breakaway goal and then we looked poor at the back, with the situation not getting any better in the second half. Having been to four Sunderland home games so far this season (all for nowt by the way), I've not heard their fans sing at all, but all of a sudden they were, and in our back yard too. The situation just went from bad...
Post a Comment
Read more

Over The Winter With Lexie

The indoor season of 2019/2020 was an interesting one for Lexie - it started with a change of coach and saw her take a greater focus on Hammer throwing as well as continuing with her Shot.  It has been a huge change for her, much more intense training and with older athletes too.  It's fair to say that it's taken a bit of time for her to get used to it, but she's a toughie and she's worked hard to establish herself in the group and worked hard at training too. That persistence and focus has certainly paid off over the indoor season.  Her pb was sitting at 10.22m with the Shot and that was from back in June 2019 at School Intercounties and she hadn't thrown close to that for quite a while.  The indoor season aim was to medal at the Northern Indoor Championships and regular readers will know that Lexie has a history of coming 4th at the Northern's and she's done that twice.  Her Shot technique has been changed a lot and the power was improving across the Win...
Post a Comment
Read more