Physiofit Athletes May Update

Victoria Barlow:

Over the last few months it has been the Indoor season in athletics so I have had a lot of competitions. At the Indoor Northern Championships I broke the U17 Girl’s record, which has been standing for 10 years, and also my PB. I competed at Vault Manchester, which was my first elite competition, after being selected for the 'Elite' women. Here I came 4th and achieved another PB. At the Indoor Nationals at EIS Sheffield, I equalled a PB of 3.8m and came 1st in the U17 girls. Unfortunately, I did not achieve my target of 4m as I gradually came across an injury towards the end of the season but am looking forward to competing this summer.

In the last couple of weeks, I have accepted a sports scholarship to Millfield School where I propose to train with Alan Richardson as of September 2017 and begin A Levels there. In the past week, I have also been fortunate enough to receive support from The Arts & Sports Trust on behalf of Sale Harriers. A profile should be featuring on their website soon.

Bel Wardle: Over the last 2 months I've played in the French, Scottish and Welsh championships so it's been pretty busy. I missed the cut in the first 2 events but played much better at the Welsh. My game has just lacked consistency. I've grown over the last few months and I think this has had an effect on my swing. Me and my coach have worked together to improve my posture, which has helped me get a more consistent strike. On reflection, I've come to the conclusion that I need to change my mindset on the golf course. Be more confident! Slow myself down and don't let others affect how I play!

I've seen the physio over the last month. It's been more of a check up session after playing so much golf. Really appreciate the support I'm getting from Physiofit.

Archie Phillips:

Over Easter I was selected to play for England U16s against Holland. The Dutch are always very good and unfortunately we lost all 3 matches but it was a good experience and great to get my first international caps. I also had the national U16 club finals with my club Bowdon. Although we won all the games on the way to the national finals and were north champions we faced some very strong teams from the south and unfortunately came off second best. More recently I have been playing for the North West U17 Performance Centre, where we have won all our games so far including a strong 4-1 win over Nottingham. I have some more England training camps over the next few weeks and hope to be selected for the 6 Nations in July.

Hannah McColgan:

I've had a tough start to the season despite being in a great shape physically. Angie has been a great support helping me out. On a really positive training block at the moment getting ready for the clay court season. Had a great opportunity getting to practice with Sachia Vickery who is ranked 142 in the world.

Caitlin Polley:

This month I have played in the Investec Women's trophy final for Alderley Edge Ladies’ 1st Team against Nottingham University, which was a great experience which I loved. Unfortunately we lost on penalties but it was still amazing being on the Olympic pitch. I have also just finished a day of training in Nottingham for the U15 North West Performance Centre. This is the last big hockey month for me for a bit and I’m looking forward to a rest and some fun summer hockey.

Lauren Jones:

A year so far of massive highs and a few niggling lows. It seems as a teenager that growing and building muscle has its ups and downs and with bone and muscle growing at different speeds it makes for a few aches and pains.

I started the year with a back injury which took me out of impact training for a few weeks. One MRI scan later and it appears I have a sacralisation of my L5/S1 vertebrae. Fortunately, thanks to Angie and all at Physiofit, I returned in time to perfect my moves for the English Championships in April where I had a clean round, finished 4th on the beam and in the top twenty overall.

As a result I have been selected for the England squad for a second year running.

I am back in the gym working on some harder moves, particularly on the bars. My next big competition, the British Challenge Cup, is later in the year so I need to increase my difficulty scores by then.

Over the last week or so, I have had some pain in my ankle/ Achilles. I came in to Physiofit to see Clive who has diagnosed Severs disease. No more impact training for another few weeks! However, I can still work on the bars so there is a silver lining!

Thanks to everyone at Physiofit for all their help.

Lucy Roberts:

I've had my first competition of the year a few weeks ago and I won my age category of under 14's and also got 2 PB's. May is a big training month for me, so I'm down in Lincolnshire every weekend at Hazelwood Ski World being coached by some of the best coaches in the country. I went over the jump for the first time last weekend which is so much fun and the biggest adrenaline rush ever!!! I do all 3 events of tournament waterskiing so I have to split my training schedule to accommodate all 3 disciplines of slalom, trick and Jump. I'm still training off the water with my PT Paul Mitten at Pepper Road Fitness as well as following my Physiofit programme set my Ang and Gem and still doing plenty of school sport and S&C. In June I have European Ranking competitions every weekend which involves a lot of traveling and by the end of the month I'll hear if I've been selected to represent the country at the Europeans which are in Spain this August. The under 14 team consist of just 4 skiers but I've been training hard so I'm hopeful that I'll be chosen. I have my school exams at the start of June so I'm busy revising for them. I try to go to the library at lunch times to do my homework so I've got more time in the evenings to revise. I also train at Wigan or Whitworth after school once or twice a week and have mastered the art of revising or doing homework in the car without getting travel sick! I'm so excited about this year and all the opportunities I have to ski and travel. I'm entered into 2 pro-ams over the summer which are brilliant as you ski alongside the best in the world!

Sarah Jackson

I spent the second half of my winter in Bonaire which was a lot of fun, and I learnt a lot. I increased my flat water speed by about 8-10mph since last October and learnt some new freestyle moves which was fun to finally be landing them.

I’ve had a couple of big events since I’ve been home – the Youth Slalom World Championships and the British Slalom Championships. The Youth Worlds was a particularly tricky week for me with the most challenging conditions I’ve ever raced in. I finished in 9th place which initially I was disappointed with but looking back and seeing how much I’ve improved, especially as I’ve only been sailing this discipline for 2 years, I’m actually really proud of myself.

I also had the first of the British Slalom Championships events last weekend. As I can’t make it to all the events this year I’m taking this opportunity to really push myself in the events I can do and take some risks as my results won’t count in the overall ranking. As such, I’m competing the in “Pro Fleet” this year with the senior men. This is the top division in the country and hasn’t had female representation for quite a few years so it’s a really good experience for me to sail with the men and hopefully I will learn a lot from them. At the event last weekend I came 12th out of 20, which I was super happy about and beat some of the men I didn’t expect to. Another of the girls also stepped up into pro fleet as well and we had some close battles over the weekend but in the end I came out on top which I was really happy about.

Whilst I’ve been home I’ve been having some physio and massage sessions with Angie and Cem to sort out my elbow and I came through the weekend pain free so thank you to everyone at Physiofit for helping me with a speedy recovery!