As 2021 draws to a close, we've been looking back on the year to see who takes the spots in the Bristol & West 2021 Fast Team. This is made up of our athletes who have run the fastest, thrown the furthest and jumped the furthest / highest in 2021.
Men
For the men, it's 8 athletes for the 11 spots over the flat distances. Jody Smith narrowly snuck the 60m spot, with his race on the 29th December just making it to Power of 10 in time. Smith also took the 100m spot by 0.2s. For the 200m and 400m, we have Briar Cliff University athlete Ben Jefferies, taking the spots with new PBs ran in Alabama and Iowa earlier in the year.
Moving into middle distance, and no one was getting within 10s of Thomas Baines' new club record in the 800m, with his 1:49.08 leaving him ranked 17th U23 in 2021. In the 1500m it was a close contest, with Mike Wilsmore our fastest athlete, finishing the year as the fastest V35 in the country over the metric mile (3:45.16). Jack Bancroft was our fastest athlete over 3000m, with Callum Jones smashing his PB to take the honours in the 5000m.
For the 10k and Half Marathon, it was a double sweep for Jack Millar, with his 2021 PB performances elevating him to our 2021 fastest athlete over those distances. Adam Stokes returned to the marathon distance, with his PB at the Cheshire Elite Marathon nudging him into the spot for 2021.
Women
For the women, it was a different athlete for every distance. Natalia Isherwood took the 60m spot, with her PB at the Cardiff Met Christmas Classic giving her the spot by 0.15s. Morgan State athlete Tia Jackson ran into the 100m spot by just 0.02s with her performance in North Carolina just pipping Jenna Blundell. Charlotte Orton's performance at the first NAL of the year was just enough for the 200m spot, taking the place by 0.05s. Perhaps unsurprisingly, club double Olympian Emily Diamond takes the 400m spot, with her 51.82 going down as the 9th fastest time in the country this year.
Chloe Crossman's 2:12.60 took the 800m spot, while Zoe Wassell, in the colours of San Francisco University, just edged Chloe for the 1500m spot with her 4:28.77 performance in California. Megan Hornung took the 3000m spot, with her fantastic time of 9:45.62 leaving her ranked 5th U17 in the country in 2021. In what may go down as the Southwest PB Series performance of the year, Phillipa Williams ran 16:27 in the June race to lay claim to the 5km spot.
Fresh from her exploits in the mountains, Kate Maltby took over a minute off her 10k PB at Leeds Abbey Dash to record our fastest 10k of the year. Capping an excellent year, Hannah Alderson made a late entry with her 1:18:55 PB at the Wiltshire Half Marathon just pipping Annabel Granger. However, with the distance doubling, Granger ran a phenomenal 2:49:48 at the London Marathon to record the clubs fastest marathon of the year.
Throws, Jumps and Hurdles
In the 3000m Steeplechase, PBs from Steve Kerfoot and Emma Clarke secured them the #1 spot, with Harry Wood and Jenna Blundell repeating the double PBs to take the spots in the 110m / 100m hurdles. For the 400 hurdles, the performances by Jamie Lambert and Sarah Kearsey at the June NAL secured their claims to the fastest 400m hurdles times of the year.
Jake Burkey and Jordanna Morrish jumped 1.83 and 1.74 respectively to claim the high jump spots, with Jake going on to take the long jump spot with his 7.37m PB. Emily Tyrell jumped a new PB of 5.98m to take the women's long jump spot. In the pole vault, honours go to Martin Davies (2.50m) and Esther Leong (3.80m).
The women's triple jump and shot put spots go to Emma Bakare with her 11.82m PB (TJ) and 12.68 (SP) performances. For the men, honours go to Joel Townley whose 15.27m triple jump PB edged him into first, with Matt Bryce taking the shot put with a new PB of 10.19m.
Alexander Leeming-Froudakis takes the men's discus with a throw of 38.64m, while Alice Grosjean led the women with a throw of 40.78m. Catherine Beatty threw a new PB of 61.09m to take the hammer spot. Finally, in the Javelin, Andrea Manfroni and Sophie Hamilton take the spots with throws of 54.25m and 46.87m.
We wish you all a very Happy New Year and look forward to seeing all your performances in 2022.
Notes: Results based on Po10 rankings as of 30/12, results in the 2021 calendar year only. Higher claim athletes included. Where athletes have joined or left B&W this year, their performances only count if they were a member at the time of their performance.
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