In a busy weekend of athletics with three competitions vying for athletes attention there were some outstanding performances from the various squads.
Heart of England, on a beautifully hot and sunny day there was a large team from the Harriers competing in the second fixture at Worcester AC and there were again some terrific performances from all of the squads which saw the Harriers finishing in third place overall.
Performance of the day goes to U15 Erin Healy who ran a superb 200m to set an English Schools qualification time of 26.1 to destroy the U17 women’s field. Erin had opted to concentrate on the 200m and move up an age group in search of better competition and also skip the 100m and this paid dividends for Erin who ran a superb bend to win by over half a second. Erin has also equalled the 100m 12.8 ES qualification mark, and she must now feel confident going into County Schools on 11th June and catching the selectors eye and securing selection for her first English Schools championships on 8/9th July.
Erin Healy superb 200m win and all important ES quali time.
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Other notable performances from the sprint group was a 100m/ 200m sprint double for U13 Max Mowforth who won both races comfortably, and the harriers showed their domination at this age group by winning both B races as well with Cole Sinnot winning the B 100m, and Samuel Harrison completing the clean sweep in the 200m showing he is also a real contender in this age group. Meanwhile, new sprint squad member, Achim Loibl, recorded PBs' in the U17 male 100m and 200m when finishing 2nd & 3rd in the B races respectively in times of 12.2 secs and 24.2 secs.
There were also great performances from U15 Ellen Smith who continued to impress when finishing 2nd in another PB of 27.5 secs. She has, so far, recorded PBs' every time that she has competed this season. A further 3 PBs' were recorded by female members of the sprint squad on the day - Alex Beale, U15 100m B race winner, Ellie Boulton, U17 200m B race winner, Harmony Hart, U15 200m & and Scarlet Maxwell Munn also set a new PB in the U13 200m. Winning runs were also recorded by Lewis-Morgan Barton, U15 200m, while Tyrese Parris-Smith & Dylan Mukhtar both equalled their PBs' in their 100m races.
For the Longer sprints there was a fine win for Harriett Jolley who had earlier ran an 800m, to win the U17 Women’s’ race in a new PB of 45.3, with KTH’s Niamh Monaghan running well to win the B race in 46.3. Emily Williams set a new PB in the U15G 300m with 43.9 following up on her previous day’s superb 800m at the BMC meeting, and Henri Colding also ran well in the U15B 300m A race finishing in second place with 41.0 just tiring towards the finish line after running a superb bend, with Ethan Nellis winning the U15B B race in 44.7.
The small middle distance squad were also in great form, with U15 Dylan Bowley again showing his class in the U15 800m easily winning with a strong kick with 300m to go, running just outside his PB in 2:10.8, & U11 Alfie Frayne continued his charge towards the 600m club record with yet another win the U11 600m, setting another PB of 1:50.8.
Charlotte Maywood ran a superb race in the U17 800m B race to set a 6 second PB in 2:36.3 for 2nd place, and Harriett Jolley also secured second place with a comfortable 2:32.2 in the A race. In the 1500m U13 Ollie Read ran a terrific race to finish in 2nd place for a new PB in 5:04.5, and U17 Josh Cannell also ran a new PB to finish in 3rd place in 4:43.8.
There were also wins for U15 Lewis-Morgan Barton in the High Jump, with a superb new PB of 1.60m, and he also secured a win in the 80m hurdles in 13.8, and Scarlet Maxwell Munn also set a new PB in the U13G hurdles. In the field events there were wins for Ethan Nellis in the U15B Shot B event, for Samuel Harrison in the U13B A shot competition, for Dylan Bowley in the U15B B Discus & Matilda Braithwaite 2nd in the discus (who is benefitting from her coaching with the R&N squad)
In the final events the 4x100 sprint relays, the U13B showed their total dominance with a superb performance to slice nearly two seconds from the 2013 existing club record, and on this evidence they will further improve this time as the season progresses.
U13 Boys relay squad, Cole Sinnot hand the batton to Max Mowforth on route to a new Club Record.
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Well done to all the athletes who competed, not all athletes can be mentioned but all competed well and continue to improve with every competition.
Midland League, with a small team competing there were just a few performances of note with some new Personal bests from Krisztina Kurucz who is making steady progress in her 800m since returning to full training, slicing 2 seconds from her PB and finishing in 3rd place in the A race with 2:31.1, and B 800m runner, Bethan Lewis who was running the distance for the first time in many years running well for 2nd place in a PB of 2:36.5. Claudia kelsall running in her first track race since 2012 ran well to slice 45 seconds from her previous best in the 3k, finishing in 3rd place with 10:56.9 showing her training at Bath Uni with the Triathlon team is working well.
For the men, Josh Cara ran well to finish in 2nd place with an identical time as the winner in 4:17.2 just outside of his PB, and Edward Cannell ran his fastest 3k since 2014, with 10:04.6 for 5th place. In the Hammer the Foster brothers Sam & Darren both put in respectable performances in the A & B string events with Sam just outside his PB with 47.25m for 3rd, and Darren also in third with 39.49m.
BMC Milton Keynes, there were 8 athletes from the middle distance squad in action at the British Milers Club meeting the PB classic in Milton Keynes, and all set PB or SB performances. U15 Emily Williams continued her outstanding form in the 800m in the Women’s A race, in a fast field she ran superbly to slice another 1.5 seconds from her PB, bettering her existing Club record in the process and moved to 3rd in the UK rankings with 2:12.23.
U15 Emily Williams, bettered her Club record and moved to No 3 in the UK rankings.
Jake Trent & Ella Palmer both looking for ES qualification times were again frustrated, despite both running superbly positive races on the second lap, both ran out of legs in the final 80m. Jake set a SB of 1:58.84 finishing in 3rd position, again victim of an opening lap with was 2 seconds too slow. Ella also set a SB of 2:16.80 tiring in the closing stages for 8th position. Both Jake & Ella have further opportunities to set the time in the coming weeks, and will take confidence in setting SB performances.
Also setting a new PB was U15 Daisy Robinson who sliced 5 seconds from her best with 2:36.19 and sister Amy set a SB with 2:31.14, also running from the squad was Harriett Jolley who set her 5th consecutive PB with her first sub 2:30 clocking with 2:29.86 for 5th place.
Elana Albery ran a terrific 1500m winning with a strong final 200m to slice nearly 7 seconds from her PB to move closer to the magical 5:00 barrier with a fine 5:03.60, and Jack Hope ran well in the 2ksc with a near PB equalling 6:10.92 to finish in 5th place.
The next event on the calender for the younger will be County Schools championships on 11th, which will reward the first two places for U15 & U17 athletes a chance to run in the highly competitive Mason trophy where they will be battling for honours amongst 10 counties including some giants sized county’s Greater Manchester & West Midlands where the level of competition will be second only to that found at the English Schools Championships.