Aimee Palmer Named Athlete of the Month

Aimee Palmer from Great Wyrley was named Birchfield Harriers Athlete of the Month at an Awards Ceremony at the Alexander Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Kevin Reeve her coach for the last five years described the 20-year old as

 “A very likeable person who is a model club member and a pleasure to coach.

Aimee competes regularly for the club and has done so in several age groups since she first became a club member in 2001. She always makes herself available for team selection sometimes at very short notice which is appreciated by the Team Manager.”

Aimee began dancing at the age of three and by the age of eleven had won national titles for both Ballroom and Latin American Dancing. However after attending a Star Track course, she decided to switch her attention to athletics. After three years with her local club Cannock and Stafford, Aimee became a Birchfield Harrier in 2001 where she was joined by her younger sister Jessica who is a promising discus thrower.

Aimee admitted that the news of her award came right out of the blue.

She commented,

“I was unwell with a virus which caused me to miss ten days training when a letter dropped through the letter box from the club Chairman last Tuesday informing me that I had been named as Athlete of the Month. This unexpected news came as a great boost when I was feeling low. I was very surprised but extremely happy to be chosen by the panel to receive this award which I regard as a great honour.”

She continued “Kevin and I are working on getting my run up right which should contribute towards me jumping further than ever before. Despite missing a couple of weeks training through illness recently , I want to do well at the British Universities Indoor Championships at Sheffield this weekend which will be my last competition this winter and at the BUSA outdoor meeting in May at Bedford. My target for this year is to jump beyond six metres.”

The former Great Wyrley High Schoolgirl won the bronze medal with a career best jump of 5.85 metres at the England Under 23 Championships at Bedford last summer.

Palmer won the Midland Women’s Long Jump title by sixteen centimetres with an indoor personal best performance of 5.62 metres at the High Performance Centre in Perry Barr a month ago as well as creating a 60 metres sprint career best time of 6.80 seconds.

The Stagbearer came within one centimetre of matching her indoor life time best performance when she placed runner up at the Birmingham Games at the National Indoor Arena with a 5.61 metres leap, which was just half a dozen centimetres away from victory.

Aimee, who is studying Criminal Justice at the University of Central England, also part time two evenings a week at her local public house the Wheatsheaf in Great Wyrley.  

Tom McCook