Ipswich athlete Glen Yarham won the recent the Somerset Rail Trail Fun Run.
A NUMBER of Ipswich and District Athletics Club competitors have excelled at recent events, setting records and matching international opponents.
Among the leading achievers have been Rochelle Vidler, Claire Keefer and Hayley Wright who did remarkably well at the recent Down Under Meet at the Gold Coast.
The Ipswich contingent were among 600 athletes from Queensland, NSW, Victoria and a number of countries, including the USA and New Zealand.
Vidler was superb in winning the gold medal with a personal best in the hammer throw. She also bettered the meet record and the under-16 Queensland record which she holds with a massive throw of 56.82m.
Vidler’s throw was almost a six metre improvement on last year’s meet.
Keefer, a F41 contender for the Rio Paralympics, threw the discus 24.41m. In the shot put, her distance of 7.34m just missed her previous best throw.
Wright won the under-16 90m hurdles in a new meet record of 13.23s (wind assisted + 0.8) and 12.20. She set a personal best in the heats of the 100m and 12.24 in the semi-finals.
Larissa Chambers ran 25.27 (w +0.1), finishing seventh in the 200m final and a 58.08 in the heats of the 400m while in heavy training.
Tara Chaplin came ninth in the under-16 100m final in 13.32 (w + 0.1) with heat and semi-final times of 13.37 (w +0.2) and 13.19. This was almost half a second faster than last year’s meet. She also came eight in the U16 200m ‘A’ final with a time of 27.61 (w – 0.6).
Nicholas Grantran 11.29 (w +1.6) finishing second in the under-18 100m heats. He had to pull out of the finals due to an injury but still managed to be seventh in the long jump with a distance of 6.86m.
Calab Law, the youngest and smallest of the club contingent, did well aged 12 to finish sixth in the U/16 100m heats in 12.89. That was a new PB. He then ran in the U/16 200m heats to finish fifth in 26.97.
Rail Trail victor
Ipswich club athletes also performed strongly at the 14th annual Somerset Rail Trail Fun Run on July 10.
Glen Yarham, a former club champion, was first overall for the 8km in a time of 26.05.
Tamara Carvolth, another former club champion, was seventh overall. She was the first female for the 8km in 29.16. Her time was 57 seconds faster than last year when she won the 8km female section.
Aeysha Granzien was the first female overall in the 3km in 12.59. This was another great run as this was 35 seconds faster than last year which she also won.
Ben Peters was 16th overall for the 8km in 34.40. He was first in the 13-16 years category.
