FCM, a privately owned and managed wealth and corporate services company in Jersey, has committed to a long-term partnership with Jersey Spartan Athletic Club.
The new partnership, starting with a three-year term, will work to help the active club achieve its objectives of continuing to provide quality athletics coaching in the Island and promoting fitness across all ages.
The new sponsorship has been announced after the recent Club Championships were held on 25th July. The event was a fantastic success and saw more than 80 athletes compete. Held at FB Playing Fields in windy but sunny conditions, the annual event welcomed Club members from the under 9s through to veteran athletes and their families, providing an inspirational day to encourage more members to get involved in sporting activities.
Stand-out performances on the day included: the 400m men’s sprints which saw Will Brown win in 51.4 seconds and led both Matthew Brown (U17) and Jem Gurner to personal bests, coming in at 53.0s and 53.6s. Peter Irving also ran an excellent 400m Hurdles, with 54.1s being his fastest performance since 2013.
In the 200m sprint, the wind was only just above the legal limit, Tyler Johnson clocked an impressive 21.3 seconds, and Steven Mackay followed closely behind in 21.8s. Will Brown, Aiden Loane and Peter Irving battled it out for the other places and finished within three tenths of each other.
In the women’s sprints, Lucy Hunt won the 400m with a personal best of 60.4s. Hayden Pister edged forward her 100m personal best again with a win in 12.7s, in one of the few races with a legal wind speed.
On the field there were fewer athletes than expected due to a combination of injuries, holidays and Covid, however, the day still saw some exhilarating performances. Steven Mackay jumped 6.55m for a windy win in the long jump, Lucy Woodward threw a respectable 33.01m in the Javelin and Cameron Campbell threw 43.91m in the discus.
Rebecca Orpin, both chairperson and a coach at Jersey Spartan, said: “Our main objective for the Club is to continue providing quality athletics coaching to individuals of all ages and abilities. We are also exploring developing the adult recreational running section of the Club, like a couch to 5k, that we’d like to launch this year if we can.
On the partnership with FCM, Rebecca commented: “It’s huge for the Club to have a local organisation, like FCM, supporting us. Investment in the Club means that we can develop more coaches, who can then support more athletes and ultimately contribute to more Islanders, whatever their age or ability, getting active, staying active and enjoying competition. To have a raised profile within the community is super, and important to attract more members and volunteers.”
John Wood, Managing Director at FCM said: “At FCM we are really excited for the new partnership and look forward to establishing a long-term relationship to benefit our Island community. We feel proud that we are able to work alongside a community organisation that provides essential mental and physical wellbeing support which our team have always understood the importance of.”
Images credit: Max Young of Sportscast Jersey.
