Thanet Ladies A 'Class Act' In Carshalton

Last weekend saw 2 of the Thanet AC multi-event crew take on the best in the South East of England in Carshalton at the David Weir Athletics Stadium.

Bethany Shimmen-Smith in her first U20 Heptathlon, and Gracie Lawton in her second U17 Heptathlon showed just how far they have come on a scorching weekend of athletics at the Regional Schools Combined Events competition.

Gracie Lawton and Bethany Shimmen-Smith with Coach, Darren Hatton. Photo By: Nick Purt.

Bethany started the day off in brilliant style with her second best ever 100m hurdles race (17.40s) before going to her favourite event in the high jump. Even though her best clearance of 1.50m was below her personal best of 1.55m she was in great spirit from seeing the video after because of the technical changes she has made recently that are starting to work. Next on Day 1 was the shot putt where again her second best ever throw of 7.67m kept her momentum going into the final event of the day in the 200m. Here she flew out to a personal best time of 28.06s which she hadn’t beaten since 2023.

Day 2 started with the long jump, and after a foul in the first round some tactical changes saw her jump out to another second best effort of 4.78m. Javelin was next and with the heat sapping energy continually out of the group of athletes Bethany was over the moon to see her best effort of 20.28m take her into the last event, the 800m. In 35 degrees of pure sunshine Bethany pushed on to run a time of 2:53.39 and score a brilliant total of 3400pts.

This now qualifies Bethany for the English Schools Combined Events competition in September in Chelmsford where the best athletes in England will be to test herself up against.

Bethany Shimmen-Smith in action over the weekend. Photos By: Darren Hatton. 

Gracie Lawton, in her first ever Regional Schools event, started off like an absolute train with a huge personal best in the 80m hurdles (13.76s). High jump was next for her where a clearance of 1.48m was only 2cm shy of her lifetime best. That carried her nicely into the shot putt where she achieved another personal best in a distance of 8.83m. Last on Day 1 for her as well was the 200m and she knew that this was the event where she could really improve because over the winter her running was the main focus, and she didn’t disappoint with another huge personal best to record a time of 29.20s.

Long jump was the early morning call for Day 2 for Gracie and a solid jump of 4.35m was followed by a 25.78m javelin throw. Although disappointed with the javelin she is trying out a number of new technical changes, so she went into the equally searing heat to run a second best ever time in the 800m of 2:55.11 to finish with 3383pts which was 294pts better than she scored in September.

Gracie will also be competing in September, and for her this will be trying to win a medal at the County Combined Events Champs.

Gracie Lawton in action over the weekend. Photos By: Lewis Parsons. 

Huge thanks go to Nick Purt, Lewis Parsons and Lola Brett for their support over the weekend because they all helped to keep the 2 girls going in what was 32 degrees of heat on Saturday and 35 degrees of heat on Sunday!

Coach Darren Hatton explained “These 2 girls had the full range of multi event experiences over the course of the 2 days of competition. They had to overcome not feeling too well, exhaustion, intense heat, fatigue, happiness, sadness and the hottest overnight accommodation ever...................... and they passed with flying colours!

This sets them up so well to get 10 weeks of intense training before their respective competitions in September where I am absolutely certain that they are going to produce some super performances, so watch this space!!”

• Darren Hatton