Nine athletes from the Harriers Junior ranks competed at the Mason Trophy Inter County Schools Meeting at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, in what would be one of the last opportunities for them to record entry standards for the English Schools Championships which are being held next month.
Pride of place went to Katie Gibson the bottom year Junior who won the Junior Girls Hammer competition to claim a superb Gold medal. this was Katie’s first step into high level competition and she handled the pressure well competing against some great athletes she produced a winning throw of 40.14m to see off the completion. Katie is certain to get the nod from the selectors enjoying a top 5 UK ranking, and this will be a great step towards the English Schools finals in a few weeks time.
Katie Gibson, fine win in the JG Hammer with 40.14m
Sprints - The surprise performance of the day came from Inter Boy, Josh Gray, who had only recently decided to compete in the 400m hurdles event. Having only competed in the event once at the County Schools meeting the previous weekend, he was faced with the mammoth task of competing with athletes ranked in the top ten in the UK this season. This didn’t appear to faze him however, and he finished 3rd in his race in a new club record of 60.74 seconds, placing him 33rd in the U17 age group in the UK. The previous record of 62.9 seconds had stood since 2011.
The Junior Girls age group, saw Cynthia Ike, who has already achieved the required entry standard for the 100m event, winning her race comfortably in a time of 12.82 seconds. She will now have to wait to see whether she is selected for the event as athletes are not guaranteed selection even if they achieve the standard. Junior Boy, Max Mowforth, had the misfortune of being directed to compete in the older Inter Boys race in error. He ran a time of 12.33 seconds, but was understandably unhappy with the situation that he found himself in.
Erin Healy, Inter Girl, and regular competitor at this meeting, had a strong run in the 200m, finishing 2nd in her race, in a time of 26.75 seconds. Also running the 200m was Inter Boy Joe Bradley, who ran a time of 24.22 seconds. With a personal best of 23.2 seconds, he will be looking for a return to form in his next competition.
Middle Distance – for the middle distance contingent Dylan Bowley was the top performance with another fine new PB in the Inter Boys 800m, inching his way nearer the English Schools Qualification time Bowley ran a fine race to finish in Bronze medal position and slice almost another second from his PB with 1:58.45, and with the final selection meeting taking place this weekend he will attempt to run quicker still this week to improve his chances of selection.
Dylan Bowley (far right) fine Bronze & new PB of 1:58.45 in the IB 800m
Morgan Potter ran well but was a little off his best in the Inter-Boys 400m to finish 7th in his race with 53.93, and Idayi Jumbe ran another PB performance in the Junior Boys 800m with 2:10.42 to finish a very respectable 10th out of 20 strong field, and he will clearly benefit from experiencing high quality competition. Idayi also performed well in the Triple jump just off his PB with 10:75m.