Four athletes at the recent South Eastern Schools Inter Counties match held at Crawley represented Andover AC. With the best schools athletes from Kent, Sussex and Surrey competing and with many trying to achieve qualifying standards in order to gain selection to represent their county at English Schools National Championships, this match is always of a high standard.

Under 15 Kai Mumford was making his debut in a Hampshire vest having won the Hampshire Schools hammer competition the previous weekend and he showed steady improvement culminating with a winning throw of 44.75m which gained him selection to the English Schools Championships.

Junior Girl Holly Mills, who like Mumford had won the Hampshire Schools long jump the previous weekend produced another series of impressive jumps all over 5.50m to win the competition with a best of 5.65m being 50cm more than her nearest rival.

Also selected for the 200m, Mills lined up alongside teammate Jasmine McClutchie, making her debut in a Hampshire vest. Competition was strong but both ran excellent races with Mills taking second place with a new PB of 26:0s, and McClutchie equalling her PB of 26:8s in sixth place.

The final member of the Andover quartet was Intermediate Boy (U17), Ben Reed in the 1500m steeplechase. Reed had won the Hampshire Schools competition the previous weekend with a time of 5:00.2mins and was looking to break the five-minute barrier for the first time. Settling into a good rhythm Reed paced himself well and produced a great run to finish second, taking almost ten seconds off his PB, in 4:51.5.

Over at Yeovil in the South West Schools’ Championships several Andover AC athletes sought qualification for the English Schools’ AA Championships.

New member Amy Jaramazovic recently won the Wiltshire Schools AA Senior Girls 400m in a new PB of 58:7s and was determined to show the Wiltshire selectors she deserved a place at this year’s English Schools AA Championships. She did not disappoint and ran the race of her life to finish fourth in a new PB of 58.45, reward for her fantastic run was confirmation that she has been selected for the Wiltshire AA ESAA team for both the 400m and 4 x 100m relay.

Tom Lewis recently won the Dorset Schools AA (Inter Boys 400m) setting a season’s best and was subsequently chosen to represent the county at the South West Schools Championships. Despite poor preparation due to school commitments Tom ran a solid race to finish just outside his season’s best.

Under 17 Nikko Hunt produced a season’s best of 4.31m in winning the pole vault and was selected to represent Wiltshire AA ESSA team at Birmingham in July.

Narrowly missing qualification were Callum Duff and Ross Livingstone. Duff ran his heart out in the 800m securing a huge new PB of 2:05 and Livingstone made the finals of both the 400m and 800m.