Belgrave's Junior stars came up trumps at the Commonwealth Youth Games
Competing in the old gold mining town of Bendigo, Belgrave’s junior stars (under 19 in this case) came up with gold of their own at the Commonwealth Youth Games, not to mention silver and bronze – and all this in spite of competing out of their normal athletic season.
Wade Bennett-Jackson had been hampered by a quad injury but in the opening heat of the 100 metres he won in an impressive 10.89 feeling “really, really relaxed”. A few minutes later Harry Aikines-Aryeety of Sutton & District AC took heat two just a shade faster and things were looking very good for medals in the final. Lurking in the third heat and keeping a low profile was Australian Brandan Galic with a mere 11.10 for second place. The final saw a transformation in the Aussie who had a clear win into a stiff breeze. Harry collected the silver medal with a disappointed WBJ just out of the frame in fourth.
Gold later came for both Harry and Wade as they teamed up with Belgrave long jumper Bernard Yeboah and Birchfield's Julian Thomas to take the sprint relay.
“It was good to get a medal in the relay,” said Wade, “especially as I was running the anchor leg.”
It's highly likely that we'll see Harry Aikines-Aryeety in Belgrave colours in 2005 as the Sutton athlete will be eligible to compete in our teams under the higher claim competion rule.
England’s (and Belgrave’s) team captain Chris Gearing only lost out on gold in the very last round of the shot competition. His 18.30m seemed that it might be enough to win but India’s Sourabh Vij got it together perfectly with his final effort, sending the 6kg ball out to 18.45m. Try as he could, Chris couldn’t respond to that: “Silver is good, but it’s gutting to lose out in the last round.”
A last minute decision to enter the discus paid off for Chris. His 50.81 was his best ever and earned him the bronze medal.
Adding a silver to that relay gold, Bernard Yeboah had a terrific long jump competition, leaping to within 2cm of his own Belgrave U20 record.
100m: 2 H.Aikines-Aryeety 10.81/-2.5 (1h2 10.85/-1.8); 4 W.Bennett Jackson 10.94/-2.5 (1h1 10.89/-1.6).
LJ: 2 B.Yeboah 7.60/-0.3. SP: 2 C.Gearing 18.30. DT: 3 C.Gearing 50.81.
4x100m: 1 England (B.Yeboah, J.Thomas, H.Aikines-Aryeety, W.Bennett-Jackson) 40.90.