Last Saturday saw harriers host their second open meeting of the season - and this was a special one as well as it was our 120th anniversary games.
Over 280 athletes came from far and wide and the field events in particular had some very strong fields. It was especially nice to see some of the fellow competitors from this seasons midland league return just a fortnight later.
In April, the meeting had split the high jump into 2 competitions to give higher jumpers a better experience. This time round, commonwealth silver medalist Isobel Pooley beat fellow commonwealth jumper Bethan Partridge with a result of 1.85m. In the men's competition, newham's Martin Roberts won with 2.15 in a close competition where 3 jumpers went past 2m.
In our first ever separate shot competition, former world strongest man and commonwealth games shot putter Geoff Capes brought 10 of his putters. In another high quality competition, 7 throwers went past 13m including u13b Sebastian Dickens who now tops the countries rankings and 8th all time (not bad for a formal debut!). In the same competition, u17 harrier Annie Gilbert further improved her 3k shot record to 8.03m.
The meetings first ever hammer competition saw another close competition with vet steve whyte just beating Corby's Matt Bell into second, both throwing over 55m. In the other throws comps, Cheltenhams James Campbell won the javelin competition with a throw of 62m while u11 harrier Rory Pateman improved his own vortex howler record by a further 3m by throwing 39.78m.
On the track, there was a long hoped for club record in the u13 200m as Harrier Erin Healy took it with a new mark of 27.1s. It's been a fine season for Erin as she has broken the 300 record and equalled the 100m mark. Jake Trent was just 0.2sp outside the clubs u15 800m record when finishing in 2nd place.
The track stayed to time which was quite an achievement considering the numbers of sprinters involved and windy conditions - there being 12 100m races and 9 200m races. R&Ns Clinton Osaba-George managed to post the fastest times of the day with his 22.1 in the 200m beating former harrier Yannick Phippen into second.
One final surprise came in the 400m hurdles race when commonwealth games heptathlete Jessica Tappin raced the event for the first time. She finished a fine 3rd in a mixed race and showed strong finishing pace.
The club would like to thank all of the volunteers and officials who helped make the day go well and hope to see all again next April. The full results can be found in the fixtures & results section.