Many thanks to Jonathan Tomes for his insight into how his day competing at Sunday’s (April 8th) Wakefield Open went.
Sunday’s Wakefield open was my first competition of the year, having frustratingly had to miss any opportunities I had to throw shot indoors due to illness. I entered shot putt and discus and came to the even expecting PBs in both, having made significant fitness gains since my debut competition last September.
Discus was first up, with 4 throws per discipline I felt fairly relaxed, enough to throw a big PB with my first throw and then improve that by 2cm in the second round bringing my PB to 22.84m and cementing 3rd place. I’m very pleased with this, especially given the amount of time I’ve spent throwing discus since last September – about half an hour.
I had a lengthy break between events, with Andrea busy officiating I was pleased to see some of my University athletics club and be able to relax with them and follow their progress, being a thrower doesn’t tend to be much of a social sport so it was pleasant to get to know them before we travel down to BUCS together in 4 weeks time.
With a shortage of officials the field schedule was behind slightly so I was in the unfortunate position of having to stay warmed up for shot without tiring myself out. Apparently I managed this quite well since I managed to improve my PB with both of my first two throws, the second one being 9.63 which is a massive 1.4m improvement on last year! Delighted with that as a result, my 3rd and 4th throws were nothing much in comparison but I had done enough to beat the other senior man in the comp which was a nice little bonus.
All in all a very enjoyable day out and great experience to take forward, next in the pipeline is the North East throwing festival in two weeks time and then hopefully a big performance at BUCS nationals in May. Big thanks to Andrea for the lift and for her work in the field all day on what sounds like a very challenging and thankless task, and Tom Clough for his continuing support and guidance