Erin enjoys Indoor success
Bottom year U15 Erin Healy capped of a superb display of sprinting at the Indoor Midland Counties Championships at the Barclaycard indoor area in Birmingham with magnificent silver medal in the 200m. Erin had only previously ran indoor once before over 60m in 2013, so was experiencing the unique experience of 200m laps on the banked circuit, and seemed to relish the experience by destroying her 200m outdoor best and going sub 27 seconds for the first time which is some feat on the slower indoor surface.
Erin was the first race off on day 2 & she ran a superb opening heat to set a new lifetime best of 26:95 to finish in first place in the second of the four heats showing that she has wintered well under the guidance of new Coach, John Cairns. She returned later to also win the second semi-final impressively despite the poor lane draw of lane 6, to win comfortably in 27:18 and achieve her initial weekends target of reaching the final. In the Final later in the day Erin emerged in a determined mood to try and made the podium, but once again she had an unfortunate lane draw (lane 6), so it was an inspired performance which saw her run superbly and chase down the winner in the closing stages to finish runner to to Birchfield Harrier Lauryn Walker to grab a magnificent silver medal, her first at a regional competition, and set another new PB of 26:83, nearly 3 tenths faster than her outdoor PB.
Erin who was in inspired form on track during 2014, breaking club records at 100, 200 & 300m, also performed well in the shorter distance 60m sprints again making the final and setting two new PB’s and just missing out on the medals after finishing 5th in an identical time of 8:22 to 4th place, local rival R&N Katie Print, just 0.1 seconds off the bronze medal position. Erin was using block for the first time in the final and will no doubt further improve her starting especially over the shorter sprints.
Also in action over the two day meeting for the Harriers was U13 Harriett Drake-Lee who produced some excellent performances in the quadrathlon. Harriet made a good start to the day winning the high jump with a jump of 1.28m, which was a bit below her PB 1.35m but still good enough to win the opening event. She then ran 9.66 for the 60m, jumped 3.57m in the long jump, then finishing the day on a high winning the shot putt with a best throw of 7.19m to take 4th position overall and narrowly miss out on the medals, and set an impressive new PB
Sam Bott still only 14 running as first year U17M produce an good performance in the 60m bettering his previous best of 7.98 by 0.18 to finish 5th in heat two which proved to be the fastest heat of the three., and returned on day two and produced another excellent ran in the U17 200m, finishing 5th in heat 2 in 24.91 improving on his previous best by a huge 1 second.
Mitchell Hunter U20M was feeling a little nervous racing for the first time U20 and first time indoors! Mitchell recorded a time 24.73 for the 200m coming 4th in heat three with only the winner from each heat qualifying for the final! His time was only marginally slower than his outdoor time of 24.4, and he also returned on day two and showed great character in the U20M 60m producing a fine run finishing 5th in heat 2 in 7.68.
Well Done to all the athletes!
Erin winner of a superb Silver Medal
