Athletics opener bodes well

Basingstoke Athletics Club raced ahead of the competition in the opening weekend of the new season.

Both the senior and junior teams were in action in a busy weekend for Basingstoke athletes on Saturday.

Basingstoke & Mid Hants Athletic Club played host to Aldershot Farnham & District AC, Hillingdon AC and South London Harriers in the first Southern Athletics League match of the season.

Warm sunny conditions were a very welcome sight for the athletes and contributed to some great individual performances for an overall win for the Basingstoke club.

Basingstoke swept the board in the 400m with Amber Clare coming home first for the women’s A stream race in a personal best time of 58.24 seconds.

Following closely was Lydia Sommers who finished first in the women’s B stream race.

For the men, Harry Richardson achieved a personal best performance finishing first in the A stream 400m race in a time of 50.07, with Joe Flitcroft also taking first place in the B stream race.

There was further glory for the athletes as both the Basingstoke men and women finished in first place in the 4x400m relays.

Rebecca Bullock and Gemma Brigg dominated the middle distance runs winning their 800m races.

Izzy Mannion and Rebecca Poole won both 1500m races, with Poole adding to her earlier triumph in the 400m hurdles race.

In the field events, Emily Cornwall and Hannah Haugvik continued the Basingstoke dominance by winning their respective long jump competitions with five metre jumps.

Caius Joseph was the outstanding performer in the pole vault, clearing a height of 4.45m to set a new personal best and new junior men club record.

Both Caius and fellow Basingstoke athlete Ryan Bonifas cleared 1.8m in the high jump, gaining two firsts.

Elsewhere on the field, Joe Flitcroft in the hammer, Ben Hazel in the javelin, and Nicolas Gerome in the shot putt all recorded wins in their sport.

On the track, Nicolas Gerome and Josh Strudwick achieved first place in their respective 400m hurdles race, with Ryan Bonifas finished first in the 100m hurdles.

Both Rob Wood and Justyn Moore won their 5000m races.