A 6.00a.m. flight departure from Luton airport on the 4th of April marked the start of the warm weather athletics training week at Club La Santa in Lanzarote. 40 boys from Habs and 19 girls from Princess Helena College supported by 10 staff came together for the week long programme which has been running annually since 1993.
Training is a mix of technical event specific work and a programme to improve fitness levels which makes use of the wide variety of facilities available at this outstanding venue. In addition to athletics the group did extra work in the swimming pools, fitness suite, Body Bike studio, TRX centre and sports halls. The programme finishes with a team and individual pentathlon on the final day.
In addition to time around the leisure pool, for relaxation the group played 5 a side football, beach volleyball, went Mountain biking to various beaches around the centre and for the first time went Go Karting at San Bartolome race track. Pool tournaments were very popular in the evenings.
Ollie Hocking and Jamie Harper excelled in the pentathlon, Ollie throwing over 13 metres in the shot and 40metres in the discus. Distance runner Jamie Harper ran 2.02 for the 800m and improved his High Jump to 1.72. Other athletes to show good early season form were Freddie Shiret, Kit McDonagh, Henry Rocha, Tolu Elesin, who also did 4 swim sessions in the Olympic pool and Adam O’Reilly who excelled in the 80m hurdles and also won the lunatic driver award on the Go Kart track.
A number of the group combined to put teams into the weekly Club La Santa triathlon which comprises of a 400m swim, 16km bike ride and 5km run, Tolu Elesin, Kit McDonagh and Jamie Harper combined to finish 7th, with Jamie running the fastest leg and Tolu recording the 3rd fastest swim. A special mention goes to Andrew Chronias who despite having a very wobbly start on the bike kept going and mastered the hilly and very windy course.
A big thanks go to the staff who supported and coached throughout the week. Mr Phil Barlett for being in control of all things financial, Mr Paul Valente for his dominance in the discus cage, Mr Jez Cox and Mrs Leda Cox for their all-encompassing knowledge about bike riding and injury repairs, Miss Phillipa Lowe for bringing her youth and enthusiasm to athletics coaching. To the PHC staff Mrs Rebecca Hyland and Miss Sarah Robertson for their Body Bike and TRX skills as well as their coaching across all the events and finally to Mr Andrew and Mrs Deborah Keenleyside, the former for his great photographs, command of twitter and being Mr Go Kart and the latter for her desire to bring her enthusiasm for the sport to every pupil on the trip and help them achieve the very best they possibly can. They make the week the success it is.
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