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
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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
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May 9th, 2010 by News Desk
TALENTED athlete Vicky Silk secured two golds and a silver at the British Dwarf Association championships in Birmingham.
The Ashford AC athlete from Folkestone opened with the silver with a fine 5.08m in the shot and then immediately was in action in the javelin where she claimed gold throwing over 20m for the first time in a major championship recording 20.10m.
Within the hour she was back in action in the discus arena seizing her second gold with another splendid performance throwing 17.78m.
It was all the more remarkable in that all three medals came withing two hours and next season the DAA are looking to spread the field events over a longer period.
The three distances thrown are thought to be British Under 20’s records for the D.A. Association. Vicky is certainly closing in on the European records for Under 20 year olds too.
Her next competition will be on May 9 at Perivale, Middlesex, at their County Championships in the UKA Parallel Success meeting. That is followed by her representing GB/NI at Sport City, Manchester in the Paralympic World Team Cup competition. This will be her third appearance in this annual competition.
Other important meeting to follow will be at Watford on June 3, Bottrop, at the German Championships June 11-13, Gateshead on July 10/11th, Crystal Palace, August 13  to 15th and culminating in Slovakia at the IWAS Championships on August 22-27.
Through this relatively short season, Vicky is hoping to achieve distances in both the shot and discus to enable her to be selected for the Great Britain team to travel to New Zealand in January 2011 for the Disability World Championships.
Before then she will have moved to Wales to undertake three years of study at Cardiff University.
Tags: golds, Vicky Silk
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