Blake Gates

When Blake applied for assistance from Swale Youth Development Fund, he thought about his goals for the season:

  1. To qualify for the England Athletics U15/U17 Championships.

  2. To be selected to represent Kent.

  3. To throw over 40m in both discus and hammer.

With the support of his family and club, funding from SYDF and his own dedication, Blake achieved every one of those goals and more!

At the beginning of the athletics season Blake competed in the Kent U15 Championships, where his hammer distance of 38.85m met the qualifying standards for the England Athletics Championships (Goal 1!). Shortly after that he won gold at the Kent Schools Track & Field Championships for a discus throw of 38.87m. This, again, was enough to qualify for the England Athletics Championships.

Blake’s achievements meant that he was soon chosen to represent Kent (Goal 2!) at the English Schools Athletic Association Track & Field Championships. His equipment and his travel to Birmingham Alexander Stadium were funded by his club and by SYDF. Blake was disappointed by a 12th place finish but thrilled to have participated in his first major national championships.

Later in the year, Blake make the journey to Birmingham a second time for the England Athletics U15/U17 Championships. He was rightly pleased with finishes of 9th in discus and 5th in hammer; he was even more pleased with a personal best in hammer of 42.97m (Goal 3!).

Not content to rest on his laurels, Blake turned arrived at his final competition of the season (his club championships) and proceeded to hammer his own records. He smashed his recently-set PB in hammer by setting a new PB of 46.12m, which moved him up to 8th in the UK. His PB of 36.57m in javelin was a happy surprise given that it was only his second time competing at javelin for the season. Shot put was next, in which he threw a massive 12.22m, shooting him up the UK rankings by almost 100 places.

Blake’s progress from the start to the end of the season was monumental: he gained 2m in shot put, 5m in javelin, 6m in discus and a mighty 8m in hammer. To end his final year at U15 level at 8th in the UK rankings for hammer (his favourite event) is the icing on the cake for Blake. We’re excited to see what new goals Blake sets for himself at U17 (but not as excited as Blake is)!