On a near perfect night for running 33 of the Harriers MD squad were in action at the Corby AC open meeting, which saw record numbers of athletes entering on the night which unfortunatly led to some difficult delays which affected the warm up of some of the athletes.
A few of the MD squad had decided to drop down in distance and there was some fine performances, with U17 Ella Palmer running a superb debut 400m to record a her first sub 60 clocking of 59.1 to move to 11th in the UK rankings and show she has retained a fantastic level of speed endurance since moving into middle distance. Abigail Coleman also set a flat 400m PB with a solid 400m in 62.2, and Emily Williams was just behind her 300m PB with 44.7
The expected firecracker of a race for the fastest 800m male athletes in the final race didn’t quite materialise, but it was an excellent tactical race. After a cautious start Jed Hayes found himself a reluctant opening lap pacemaker and took them round in a leisurely 59 seconds and with everyone jockeying for position on the back straight, there was a big kick from Peterborough AC’s Daniel Grant with 250m to go which brought an immediate reaction from the field with the KTH trio of Gilliaume Morand, (Our French Guest), Jake Trent & Jed Hayes all respond and kick for home, It was Jed Hayes who proved to have the strength and a decisive kick and he impressively opened up a 1 second gap in the home straight to finish in 1:57.9 ahead of Guilliaume in second (1:58.8), and Jake Trent settling for 4th in 2:00.5. Ethan Mehmet also ran a solid race just off his PB in 8th place with a respectable 2:03.9.
There was another great battle in heat 8 between local rivals Dylan Bowley & Corby’s Archie Parkinson with the later again just edging out Bowley in the finishing straight and both running remarkably consistent times of 2:17.5 & 17.9 which would still rank them inside the UK top 15.
There were a number of the squad making their debut over 800m with U15’s Fynn Batkin looking impressive with 2:18.4 & Josh Cannell recording 2:26.2, and U11 Alfi Fayne setting 2:44.6. There were race debuts in the KTH red & White vests for U15 girls Charlotte Maywood & Alicia Mistry who ran well for 3:03.3 & 3:09.8 respectively.
There were 9 further athletes who ran new lifetime best performances on the night, U17 Chloe Hearne (2:34.6), U15 Dannielle McCann-Gaskell (2:26.1) U13 Skye-lily Kay (2:41.2), U15 Harriett Jolley (2:49.2), & U13’s Oliver Read (2:42.9), Cole Sinnott (2:42.2), Millie Toseland (2:52.4), Josh Geddes (2:48.8), & Blainne Conway (2:50.7).
All in all it was a fantastic night to take advantage of the conditions and for many of the squad to get further experience in racing.
Well Done to all athletes!