Lincs Throws Academy indoor event in Bourne produces new personal bests
Shot putters from six counties took part in the second of three indoor competitions at Bourne Leisure Centre on Sunday.
The Lincs Throws Academy winter indoor shot put series, organised by Holbeach athletics legend Geoff Capes and his son Lewis, produced a number of new personal bests and improvements to national rankings.
Lawson Capes (11), son of Lewis and grandson of Geoff, extended his under-13 boys' personal best by a metre from 8.53m to 9.54m.
The new mark confirms Lawson as the number one of his age in the country, following in the footsteps of his older brother Donovan who won the English Schools' junior boys’ shot put crown last July.
Sophie McKinna, the first British woman in 36 years to reach a world shot put final last October, threw 17.07m to emerge as overall winner of Sunday's event in a year when she will be targeting Olympic Games success in Tokyo, Japan.
Lewis said: "Sophie was a member of Lincs Throws Academy as a junior and is now Britain’s number one female shot putter.
"She is in the middle of hard winter training and starting to throw again, although her throw of 17.07m was well off her best of 18.61m.
"But she is looking to peak for the Diamond League event in London in July."
Elizabeth Moorehouse, another Lincs Throws Academy athlete, set a new personal best of 11.87m to put herself seventh in the country at under 20 level.
Nottinghamshire's Christian Archer was another to record a new personal best of 12.90m, while academy newcomer James Dods threw 14.32m to earn himself a national top-ten place at under-20 level.
RESULT: 1. Sophie McKinna (Senior, Great Yarmouth) - 17.07m; 2. James Dods (under-20, unattached) - 14.32m; 3. Christian Archer (under-20, Retford) - 12.90m; 4. Daniel Brunt (40s, Sheffield) - 12.22m; 5. Elizabeth Moorehouse (under-20, Peterborough & Nene Valley) - 11.87m; 6. Jacob Hanton (under-17, Great Yarmouth) - 11.74m; 7. Tom Smith (under-20, Hunts) - 10.32m; 8. Lawson Capes (under-13, Peterborough & Nene Valley) - 9.54m; 9. Abigail Sharples (under-20, Lincoln) - 9.43m.