Athletics: Jim defies injury to land podium and PB

The Wragby thrower was less than fully fit when he competed at Derby, following a rib injury earlier in the week.

A 26.45m throw in the hammer set up him nicely, but a below-par shot putt result of 7.96m was not what he wanted.

Back came Jim with a season’s best in the javelin to keep him in contention, and an excellent discus effort of 26.87m moved him into third place.

“By now my ribs were killing me so I knew that I had to get a good throw in early in the last event,” Jim confessed.

“The heavy hammer puts an incredible amount of torque on the body, so I was very relieved to put out an 8.96m throw with my first effort, securing third place.

“My final points score was also a personal best with 2,078 points.”

Kieran Gillespie and fellow Wragby athlete Callum Dean were in action at the second Youth Development League match of the season at Grimsby.

Kieran started with a third place in the long jump, clearing 4.59m, and followed this up with a personal best 1.63m in the high jump for second place.

His next event was the javelin, and a throw of 31.84m saw him taketop spot.

Another first place quickly followed in the 110m high hurdles with 19.5 secs, his second-best run this year despite an horrendously strong headwind.

A solid 24.48m in the discus, placing him third, finished a very busy day.

Callum had an excellent day, placing third in the 100m, running 12.3 secs, and winning the 200m in 23.7 secs, despite the same awful wind conditions.

These are superb performances for an athlete who has only just started racing and who has already taken some very noteworthy scalps.