National Schools T&F Championships 2014

It was with great pride that the family Coupland packed up and headed up north for a weekend of athletics at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Robbie heading up on Thursday night with the Hampshire team, the pain from his hip now behind him, but a week out of training hanging over him like a dark cloud but a lot of positive thinking and ability assertion had him feeling good about the weekend. Alas though it was not to be, Robbie got boxed in early with the core group of runners, and throughout the race struggled with that position, never really making a positive move to break out of the pack, or at least not making a successful one. In the end, the last lap left him wanting and the final straight showed a Robbie, who to me was simply not anywhere close to fit. Completing his heat in 9th place but with a respectable time of 4’22”. Not a bad time, but ultimately not good enough, not good enough to qualify, and not good enough to score any “standard” points for the county. With Robbie out of the 1500m Saturday, final day, was just about the athletics, and with the disappointment of Friday’s results behind us the chance for the family Coupland, as a unit, to get behind all the athletes was great, and an excellent day of really enjoyable athletics was had.

The Pack - 1500m Heat 2

The Pack – 1500m Heat 2

Picture shows Robbie in 7th place with about 450m to go, had he managed to stick with it, 7th place would have been just enough to qualify, but on the day it was simply not to be.

A zoom in of the Hampshire Team at the Parade Ceremony.

A Panoramic view of the stands and competitors at the Parade Ceremony

Calthorpe Park Sports Day

Calthorpe run a number of heat events during normal PE lessons to select runners for the finals on Sports Day, the exception to this is the 1500m race, which is run as 2 heats, with the times taken and positions sorted based on time, not on a final. So before Sports Day, Robbie had already won the 1500m, and was down to race in the 800m final/ The Year 9 (Robbie) and Year 10 boys races were merged in to one, obviously with the boys scoring within their own age group only. Robbie went out from the start to try and beat the School Sports Day Record for year 9 currently standing at 2’15”, and his time at the half way point looked very good, Robbie had a convincing lead and was looking very strong running the race from out in front, with Billy Kilcoyne (Y10) in second place but some distance back.

Robbie finished in a new record time of 2’13.89″ breaking the old record, that had stood since 1972.

Heading down the finishing straight for the first time.