U/13 Boys shine at Southend

Today (Saturday) at Southend was day 4 of the Essex Championships, the timetable of which included the relays. I took an inexperienced U/13 Boys team there  to run the 4 x 100m (inexperienced in the sense that they only had 1 training session last Tuesday at the club, although they have run at different times at the EYAL Meetings this year). It was a straight final of 8 teams. I was unsure how they would do but hoped they could, if pushed, get 3rd. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong if I tried! Tolani Alaba led off and ran a very good 1st leg. He passed to Justin Asare, with a good, safe changeover. Although smaller than some of the other athletes he stayed within touching distance of the leaders. He then passed to Sidnie Ward, who simply blew his opponents away, going from 5th to 1st. He then passed the baton to Abdul Icare who ran like a powerhouse to storm to a resounding 1st place in a time of 52.6sec, which is the 10th fastest in the country, and GOLD was theirs. A massive WELL DONE to them  all, they were truly brilliant and they made me speechless - which is very rare.

Paul Cheal (Team Manager)

From left to right: Justin Asare, Sidnie Ward, Tolani Alaba, Abdul Icare