Virtual events are experiencing a boom at the moment, as athletes look for ways to get a competition fix during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Up until recently, these had been mostly running events, but British coach, Paul Wilson from The Valhalla Throws Academy created his own Virtual Shot Put competition which took place on Saturday 2nd May.
Initially expecting around 30 entries, the start list soon grew to more than 160 throwers from countries including New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Sweden, USA, Ireland and the UK.
Competitors measured their own 6 throw competition and sent in their results by text for them to be collated by sex and age group; the results were then posted online.
We had four of our juniors taking part; throws experts, siblings Rosie and Lily Thompson, and two of our multi-eventers, Tori Buckley and Hugo Douglas-Reeves.
Rosie was competing in the U20 age group with the 4kg shot. Her best throw was her second of the day; a tremendous 9.19m, which would have been a new PB had it been an official event!
Younger sister, Lily was in the U15s with the 3kg shot. Lily’s best result came from her first throw of the day; a magnificent 10.51m which would also have been a new PB! The girls even registered a few no throws; very fair girls, well done!
For Tori, it was a step up in age group to the U15s, which of course meant a heavier shot. But she took to the new 3kg weight with ease and each throw was an improvement on her previous one, with her sixth and final throw being the best at 7.45m.
Well done ‘Buckers,’ a tremendous effort.
This is still Hugo’s first year as an U13. As a multi-eventer, the shot put isn’t one of his favourite disciplines; he hasn’t had much coaching yet as far as throwing goes, so I’m sure there’s lots more to come when he’s had some help improving his technique. Still he put in a great effort nonethless and his best throw of the day was 7.31m, which would have smashed his current PB.
Great stuff, Hugo, well done!
So there we have it….a bit of virtual fun, along with plenty of competitive spirit from our Junior Harriers.
Bring on the next one!