September 11th, 2010 by News Desk
Vicky Silk celebrates gold
ASHFORD AC can boast their first junior world record holder after an outstanding spell of results from Folkestone’s Vicky Silk.
The talented young athlete has had a busy summer with four meetings at Hemel Hempstead, Crystal Palace, Czech Republic and Berlin.
The highlight came in the Czech Republic in the IWAS World Junior Games when she produced a stunning final throw in the javelin to claim the title.
Despite really hot conditions she powered to 20.63m on her last throw claiming a new European record and an Under 20 world junior record.
Competing in a mixed class against competitors from around the world she had already thrown 19 metres consistently but produced a an extra effort to secure the gold.
The day after was the shot and she was quite nervous not having done much training recently in the event. The weather was even hotter and in a nother mixed class they were against their own world records.
Remarkably she threw over her personal best of 6.20m by 3cm then it kept going up into the 6.30’s and on her fifth throw secured another best of 6.45cm to claim the bronze medal.
The rain came in for the following day’s discus competition but she still managed to still get an 18.40m throw in for the silver medal.
Vicky and the rest of the Welsh team drove on to Berlin to finish off the season and again it was wet in the discus.
However, she threw better than she had in Czech, with a throw of 18.83 and a silver medal…very close to her personal best of 18.88m. The weather cleared up a little bit in the afternoon for the shot and her fifth throw gave her another personal best of 6.51m and another silver medal.
Said Vicky: “I was very pleased with this new persoanl best and proved to myself that my throws in Czech were not a fluke.”
Earlier in the UK she competed in the McCain Jumps and Throws Fest at Hemel Hempstead.
It was an able bodied competition but allowed para athletes to take part. She recorded 18.29m in the discus and 5.84m in the shot.
The weekend after was the UKA Disability Athletics Challenge and there was only discus for her class in the event. It was a combined class of dwarf athletes, cerbal palsy and visually impaired.
Overall she claimed the silver medal with a distance of 18.71, close to her best of 18.88m.
It was a period of extra joy for Vicky as while she on the continent she also heard she had passed her A Levels to confirm her place at university.
Tags: All-time best, Discus, javelin, McCains, personal best, Shot, Vicky Silk, world record
Posted in Track & Field, championships, disability | No Comments »
July 24th, 2010 by News Desk
Kelsey Howard and Kate Funnell at Glasgow
ASHFORD AC’s Janine Brown stunned even herself in taking a superb gold at the National Police UK Championships held in Scotland.
Despite awful conditions with rain and wind she claimed victory in the 800m with a season’s best 2:29.3 and also took bronze in the 1500m race in another season’s best of 5:06.3.
The event was also trials for the European track and field championships being held in the Ukraine over September 22-25 but Janine said she was not seeking selection as she needs a break after a long and demanding season with injury and marathon training.
But she aims to be back with road and cross country events for Ashford and Kent Police after her break.
Another Shepway athlete enjoying success is Vicky Silk who was back on form with two golds in Dublin strengthening her claim for selection for selection in the world championships in New Zealand in January.
She threw consistently in the discus to win with a personal best 18.88m improving her best by 84cm and she went close to setting another best in the shot with a winning throw of 6.13m in another impressive series.
She now has two meetings left with the Diamond League meeting at Crystal Palace on August 15 and then in Slovakia in late August for the IWAS world championships.
Kate Funnell and Kelsey Howard represented the Folkestone School for Girls at the Four Nations U17 International Athletics meeting at Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow with Kate coming fourth and Kelsey fifth.
With race walking an emerging discipline within athletics at the moment, it is quite a coup for the school to have two athletes competing at this level, in the same age group and at the same time being good friends.
Kate also recently competed in the Aviva UK Championships at Birmingham joining Lisa Dobrisky in featuring the club’s colours at the highest level in the BBC televised event.
Tags: Discus, Funnell, golds, Janine Brown, Shot, Vicky Silk, Walking
Posted in Race Walking, Track & Field, Veterans | No Comments »
May 18th, 2010 by News Desk
ASHFORD Athletic Club’s Vicky Silk has started the new season in terrific form with three personal bests in two competitions.
In the Middlesex Parallel Success championship at Perivale she improved in all her throwing events opening up with a superb 6.20m in the shot improving her best by six centimetres and then bettered her previous best in the discus with with 18.05m.
In the javelin she continued to shine following up her massive pb from the previous week of 20.10m at the National Dwarf championships at Birmingham with a fine throw of 17.98m.
At Birmingham she not only improved her best for the javelin, throwing over 20m for the first time, but added the gold in the discus and a silver in the shot.Â
All is progressing well for her forthcoming trip to Manchester on Tuesday (May 25), when she will be representing GB/NI at the BT Paralympic World Team Cup competition.
She competes in the shot and is looking forward to throwing over six metres for the first time in this major competition. This will be Vicky’s third consecutive year she has gained a place in this prestigious team.
Former Ashford field events ace Hannah Hogben has been hammering the opposition setting a championship best in the Oxfordshire county championships with 42.97m to lift the gold in the hammer event.
Hannah, now living in Oxford, also shone in the Oxford v Cambridge University match setting a person best of 44.25m in the hammer but had to settle for the silver medal at Oxford’s Ifley Road Stadium.
Tags: golds, personal best, Vicky Silk
Posted in Track & Field | No Comments »
