Harriers Gold Rush!
Kettering Town Harriers completed an amazing haul of medals over the traditional 2 day county championships held in pleasantly warm conditions at the Corby Triangle. Two days of fantastic competition resulted in an amazing rush of medals for KTH which is unprecedented in recent years
Middle Distance squad Round up;
Day 1
Proceedings got off to a flying start with Sian Edwards just back in training for 3 weeks following a niggle from the cross country season winning her first gold of the weekend with an excellently paced race with consistent lap splits in the 5000m with a time of 17:27.4, her fastest on track since 2006. Not to be outdone, brother David Edwards also won gold in the U20 race clocking 17:45.2 which was a new PB.
In the 800m Tabatha Walford, Fran Ashworth & Matt Stewart all won gold medals. Tabatha Walford continued her strong start to 2012 track as a 2nd year U13 with a dominant display in the U13 G race by running a tactically sound race and kicking strongly at the finish to win by over 3 seconds in a new PB of 2:34.8. In the 800m U13B race Travis Bowley secured a silver medal with a battle to the finish with 3rd place Joe Musgrave.
In the U15B 800m Edward Cannell was richly rewarded by following the early pace setter and eventual winner Kyran Wilson during the race to secure a bronze medal and slice 12 seconds of his previous PB with 2:21.8, Ethan Mehmet just missed out on the medals with a battling run in 4th but was also rewarded with a new PB of 2:25.3.
Fran Ashworth ran a sound race to wind her first Gold of the championships in the U17W 800 in a new SB of 2:21.9 by just holding of a strong challenge from Ellie Welch to the line and will be looking to build on this to secure an English schools qualification time in the next few weeks. Jess Gordon also ran an impressive race to secure the Bronze medal with 2:25.1 and slice 5 seconds from her PB and will also be looking to build upon this in the weeks to come. Also competing for the Harriers in a huge field of 12 athletes was Lauren Mehmet 2:46.4, and Sarina Toledo 2:47.8 both with significant PB’s.
Edward Cherry in the U17M 800 ran well to secure a silver medal in a new PB time of 2:03.0 also in a large field of 12 athletes in a mixed race with U20M & SM. Matt Stewart continued his impressive start to 2012 with his third PB in a row to secure Gold in an excellent race in the U20M 800 with 2:00.9, and now looks to dip below the magical 2:00 minute barrier in the next few weeks. In the same race Jake Hollins secured a bronze in a time of 2:15.5, which was respectable following his gold medal performances in both the 400m hurdles, and long jump earlier in the day.
Day 2
Fresh from her 800m victory the previous day Fran Ashworth running in only her 2nd 300m for some speed work was rewarded with her 2nd Gold medal of the championships in a time of 43.4 with an impressive victory to beat Megan Exley of R&N who ran 44.9 .
Edward Cherry still no doubt slightly annoyed at missing out on the 800m gold the day earlier set about to take revenge against the 800 winner Tom Charteress in the U17M 400m. Eddie set off fast before settling down after the first 100m, and in response Tom looking to dominate the race pushed on hard up to the 300m mark and had opened up a 10-15m gap at this point, Eddie showed great strength over the last 80m to reel in Tom and take the Gold medal just on the line in a huge new PB of 52.7 and showed that he perhaps may specialise more in the 400m going forward.
Tabatha Walford, Josh Cara, and Josh Coles competing in the 1500m all secured Gold medals for the Harriers. Tabatha Walford who was the lone KTH runner in the U13G 1500m due to injuries and other commitments, again ran a superbly judged race sitting in for the first two laps and slowly raising the pace up to the final 100m where she kicked decisively to secure her 2nd Gold of the Championships with 5:22.0, from R&N Amy Walker in 5:23.3. Gemma Vaughan running in the U15G 1500m ran well to finish 4th and set a SB with 5:23.8
In the U15B 1500m the specialist pairing of Jack Hope & Josh Cara were looking to get in on the medals, and they did not disappoint. With a fast opening two laps from R&N's Kyran Wilson, Josh & Jack just sat in before Josh made his move with 600m to go, by opening a short gap between Kyran and fellow Harrier Jack. Josh maintained the gap into the bell lap by which time Kyran had opened a smaller gap between Jack Hope, which he was unable to respond to. Josh Cara won the race in 4.31.1 to secure the Gold, with Kyran taking Silver in 4:36.5, and jack the Bronze in 4:37.2 and Edward Cannell feeling the effects of the previous days 800m tiring in the latter stages to finish 6th with 5:07.6.
In the U17W/ U20W/ SW combined 1500m, Sian Edwards ran a strong race in the SW 1500m to hold off the challenge of U20 Melanie Wood to win her second gold of the championships in 4:52.5 with Sophie Munn taking silver in 4:59.9 and dipping below the 5:00 minute barrier for the first time since 2005. In the U17W 1500 Abigail Coleman ran a much improved race from the previous year where she was 4th, to secure a silver medal in a SB of 5:02.0 behind Ellie Welch, and she will be looking for a sub 5:00 clocking in the next few weeks. Claudia Kelsall also ran well to finish 5th with a new PB of 5:27.1.
In the final race of the day in the combined U17M/U20M/SM race Josh Coles ran a superb race to narrowly defeat Luke Greer with his trademark strong finish in the U17M race to take Gold and set a new PB of 4:15.1, and now looking to take this form into securing a 1500 steeplechase English Schools qualification time. Dan Thompson was second in the U23 1500m with SB of 4:36.1, with David Edwards finishing 4th in the U23 with 4:40.0.
A fantastic combined effort from the whole squad, and 12 athletes now go looking to secure new PB’s and some English Schools qualification times at the British Milers club meeting on 19th May in Milton Keynes.