StatPack Mark 23 - Introduction
as at 30th September 2023 & now updated to 31st March 2024
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Introduction
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Hello and a warm welcome to StatPack Mark 23 which updates the last (September 2022) version by including marks achieved during the 2023 indoor and outdoor seasons.
​Simon Kilminster compiled the first edition of StatPack over 25 years ago and although details from earlier years occasionally surface almost all the changes in this edition again come from performances from the current bunch of talented athletes who continue to rewrite these rankings almost as soon as they can be produced!
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​The record-breaking performances were headlined by a few outstanding achievements. Stephanie Okoro, who has set club records from Under 13 up to senior continued to set new marks. In June she broke the Under 20 women’s 400m record which had stood since 1980 and went on to improve her own Under 20 and Senior 400m hurdles record in winning the Commonwealth Youth Games title in Trinidad.
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​A new name was added to the record books this year as Ruby Tillson’s prolific year not only brought her national Under 17 medals indoors and out but also improved three club records. Her record spree started in March when she set a new club indoor pentathlon record when winning silver at the England Athletics Championships. Her gold medal winning high jump of 1.73m at the Essex Championships in May equalled Linda Knowles’ U17 and U20 bests set back in 1962, and her 1.74m clearance to win silver at the English Schools Championships in July made those records her own, before she added the senior record when clearing 1.75m in August. A club U17 heptathlon record at the English Schools Regional Final was ruled out due to lack of track officials but Ruby made no mistake at the English Schools Combined Event final with a superb points total of 4951 points.
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The Under 15 boys’ team were on fire with four new club bests. Freddie Rowe broke the 20-year-old U15 3000m record when winning South of England gold in June, and improved it three more times down to a superb 8m 38.88s in September, an over 30 second improvement over the season and he also carved over 10 seconds off the 1500m best with his 4m 02.97s clocking. Another record-breaking run came with Findlay McLaren’s 1m 56.00s run at 800m in winning his English Schools heat and improving the championship record which had stood since 1986; he went on to comfortably win gold. Freddie and Findlay were not surprisingly involved in another brilliant performance when they combined with Shea Sweeney to break the club 3x800m relay best in winning the Essex relay gold with a time of 6m 26.83s. The final U15 Boys record to fall came when Zak Williams improved the pole vault record from 3.00m to 3.10m in May, to 3.11m in June, 3.13m in August and finally 3.20m in September.
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Another long-standing mark bit the dust when Summer Smith broke the Under 13 girls’ 1500m record dating back to 2000 at the Essex Championships in May with her 4m 53.99s winning time and she then took five more seconds off her record with her 4m 48.8s clocking in July. Summer also came close to breaking the 1200m best.
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​The Under 17 Men’s 4x100m relay quartet of Emmanuel Asirifi-Otchere, Joel Ajayi, Daniel Lammas and Ike Okwudi improved the club sprint relay best to 43.49s in the Club:Connect Relays in the impressive surroundings of the Olympic Stadium at the Diamond League Meeting in July.
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Finally, as more club athletes move through into the masters ranks those lists are being rewritten with Chloe Williams and Lauren Reed setting new W35 marks, James Connor M40 3000m, Jason Lendon (M45) and Gary Atkins M45 both improving steeplechase marks, John Barker the M55 1500m & 3000m records, Mark Bishop the M55 long jump and shot bests and Paul Berrett (M60 – 200m, 400m & one mile) all setting new club age group marks.
We hope that many more revisions will continue to be registered in 2024.
As noted previously, the rankings include only performances for athletes who met the age definitions now in use – this means that a few long-standing under 17 boys’ marks no longer qualified as the athlete in question was too old under the current age groups. This happened because before 1964 an athlete’s age group was calculated as at 1 April prior to the start of the track season not as at 31 August, and also the statisticians used a 31 December cut off until 1970. I have only included any changes that I have been able to find but it may mean that any marks for that athlete the previous season have been missed.
As usual, some observations on the contents, as follows.
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Any new listings since StatPack 2019 are all printed in "BOLD" to make them more noticeable — the new additions in 2022 are highlighted in BLUE while those from 2021 are high in RED
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Where an athlete’s best hand time is marginally better than their best electronic times I’ve included the electronic times as well where these are within the rankings limit.
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As with recent StatPacks I’ve listed wind-assisted marks separately. Debate will continue about whether some marks were or weren’t wind assisted – but where there is firm or good evidence of wind assistance (e.g. if the annual national rankings show it) I have listed marks as windy. Some other marks have come to light that are still unverified and I have included these here on that basis.
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Javelin Senior/Junior Men’s marks have been included from 1986 only, when the new specification (800g) came in. For the U15 and U17 Women the new specification (500g) javelin came into effect on 1 April 2014. (The specification for U15 to U17 Women was previously 600g. For seniors the specification changed in 1999 and old pre-1999 specification rankings have been omitted)
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Shot & Hammer: For the U15 and U17 Women the new specification (3kg) came into effect on 1 April 2014.
I have continued to use the following conversion criteria for historic marks.
Ø 100 Yards ‑ 100 Metres 100 Yards time plus 1.0 second
Ø 220 Yards ‑ 200 Metres 220 Yards time less 0.1 seconds
Ø 440 Yards/440 Yards Hurdles ‑ 400 Metres 440 Yards time less 0.3 seconds
Ø 880 Yards ‑ 800 Metres 880 Yards time less 0.7 seconds
Ø 120 Yards Hurdles ‑ 110 Metre Hurdles Same as they are the same distance