TALENTED young discus throwers of the Isle of Wight Athletic Club (IWAC) took part in their first competition of the season following six months of coronavirus restrictions.

Their lockdown period saw all of the girls doing core training and a variety of discus drills in their gardens, as well as throwing tennis balls.

Ellie Lovett, Naomi Holdsworth and Evie Taylor — who had all been creative in their gym work and their power drills — were all understandably excited to be selected to compete in the South England Athletics Association (SEAA) meet at Chelmsford, Essex, over the recent bank holiday weekend, which was named, the Covid Games.

Ellie, an Island Games representative in Gibraltar last year, threw a superb personal best of 41.11m.

Isle of Wight County Press: Discus British Championship title holder, Nick Percy, of Bonchurch, is an Olympic hopeful and an inspiration to lots of aspiring young discus throwers from the Island.Discus British Championship title holder, Nick Percy, of Bonchurch, is an Olympic hopeful and an inspiration to lots of aspiring young discus throwers from the Island.

Naomi, a Hampshire Championships medallist last year and who represented the county in the South East Inter-County Championships for juniors, herself threw a PB of 32.66m after a shaky start.

Meanwhile, Evie, a Year 8 inter-county schools champion last year, also beat her best by a huge margin with a throw of 31.70m.

Many competitions this year for league, county championships and English schools were all axed, but they had the opportunity of throwing in a virtual ‘English Schools’ competition, in which all three athletes won their age category events.

The athletes, coached by Mike Ferne, will also get another opportunity to compete later in the month in Portsmouth and Bournemouth.

The girls will, of course, be aiming for more PBs, but their current rankings in the UK are Evie (U15), fifth, Naomi (U17) 11th, and Ellie (U20), eighth.

Evie and Ellie have also broken IWAC club records.

  • Top British discus thrower and Olympic hopeful, Nick Percy, who has just recently retained the British Championship, also won the SEAA competition for seniors — throwing 61.57m — at an invitational in Bournemouth, beating a 55-year-old track record.