On a day when there were many fine Harriers performances, Dylan Bowley repeated his superb Midland Counties Road Relay performance where he won a Gold medal for the fastest leg on the day with a superb repeat performance, this time on the biggest stage of all, The National Road Relays, where he once again won the opening leg race and set the fastest leg of the day for the U13B again securing a Gold Medal.
Dylan with a determined finish in the U13B race to win in style
This was undoubtedly Dylan’s most impressive performance in his short career, and underlined his credentials for the coming XC season after a record breaking track season. Dylan was facing his local rival, Corby AC Archie Parkinson for the first time since twice having to settle for second place to him in the County Championships in May, and the stage was set up for another titanic battle between the two especially as Archie had set the runner up time at the Midland Counties two weeks ago & the race was every bit as good as the two memorable track races.
Dylan got off to a good start and was tracked all the way up the opening hill, with both athletes occupying 1st & 2nd Archie was pushing him hard throughout the 3.8km race and the pair were neck and neck by time the pair had reached the closing stages of the race where Archie had opened up a slender lead with 600m to go.
The thing that absolutely defines champions is the ability to dig deep in such situations, it would have been easy for Bowley to let his rival go and finish in still a splendid 2nd place, but instead he managed to dig in and find that little extra, Dylan put in a tremendous surge to go past his rival towards the final turn into the home straight and Archie responded to the challenge and the pair were trading blows and it looked like the pair would be battling all the way to the finishing line, but Dylan found still more to again kick and such was his determination in the closing stages that Dylan opened up a 30m lead in the uphill finishing straight to surge ahead of his opponent and power his way to a magnificent National Championship win.
The race was won in a superb time of 13:37, was again the fastest time set on the day by 6 seconds and Dylan won his second Gold Medal in as many weeks. Sadly there was an incomplete team but Josh Geddes ran a solid leg for his road relay debut with 17:09.
Dylan fastest time of the day with 13:37 and a Gold Championship Medal
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The other stand out performance of the day was Fynn Batkin who again ran a superb race in the U15 Boys team in the opening leg and finished in an oustanding 10th place and nearly 10 seconds faster than the race 2 weeks earlier showing he can make his mark in National competitions, Fynn was the joint 18th fastest time on the day. Josh Cannell had another solid race in the second leg of 14:59 again about 10 seconds faster than before to bring the team home in 33rd position, and the final leg was run by Thomas Jawad with a respectable 15:23 to complete the team in a respectable 39th position.
The U15 Girls race saw lead leg from Emily Williams run a much improved race to slice nearly 20 seconds from her Midlands RR time and finish in a solid 19th place with 15:05, handing over to Dannielle McCann-Gaskell who knocked over 25 seconds from her previous best to bring the team home in 24th place in 15:56, with Harriett Jolly with the biggest improvement of nearly 50 seconds bringing the team home in a highly respectable 33rd with 17:17.
The U17 Women again fielded two complete teams and both put in respectable performances to finish in 27th & 34th position. The A team which was suffled from the Midland RR saw Claudia Nevett slightly improve her time with a fine race with 15:08 to finish the first leg in 29th position, handing over to Elana Albery who also sliced 20 seconds from her best to run a solid 2nd leg and make 2 places with 15:54, with the final leg ran by Sophie Moss who also improved her time to maintain the team position of 27th, the best of the day fpor the Harriers . In the B team Ella Palmer was lead leg and she improved her time by nearly 15 seconds to finish in a solid 46th with 16:37, handing to Amy Robinson who ran a great leg to make 6 places with 17:00 dead, and Chloe Hearne who sliced a tremendous 40 seconds off her time with 16:54 to make another 6 places and bring the team home in 34th position.
The U13 G also had two teams, and in the A team, Skye-Lilly Kay ran 17:57 for 62nd, with Mia Brockway taking 5 places with a solid leg of 17:42, and the anchor leg of Freya Batkin running the fastest leg of all the girls taking a further 6 places with a fine run to bring the team home in 51st. The incomplete B team saw Daisy Robinson run 18:44 fir 65th and Natalie Short improver her Midland RR time with a solid 17:51 taking 5 places.
A superb days racing, and the squad now look forward to the opening XC fixture in a weeks’ time Derby Markeaton Park.
Well done to all.