With the race season in full swing there were a number of races over the past week which saw some terrific performances from the Harriers squads, with further PB’s, Club records & English Schools Qualifiers recorded
Sprint Squad
Tuesday night’s open meeting saw the sprint squad produce 14 personal bests from some powerful runs. The performance of the night came from U17 boy, Joe Bradley, who ran an impressive bend to win his 200m race in a new PB of 22.72 seconds, just outside of the English Schools entry standard for the event. His training partner, U17 boy, Logan Reid, who has already achieved the standard, also had a great race in the 100m, rising to the challenge of competing against Sierra Leone international, Adel Sesay, he finished 2nd in a close run race in a time of 11.30 seconds. Sesay’s winning time was 11.20 seconds.
U13s, William Robertson and Lulu Mowforth, and U15s Scarlett Maxwell-Munn and Sonal Rathod all produced double PBs in their 100m & 200m races. Meanwhile, Max Mowforth broke through the 24 second barrier to record a PB of 23.94 seconds in his 200m race.
On Saturday & Sunday, U20 athletes Alex Beale, Josh Gray, and Dylan Mukhtar competed in the Midland U20 Championships in Nuneaton. Josh ran a superb race in the 400m hurdles to pick up the bronze medal in a PB of 59.39 seconds. Alex equalled her season best in both the 100m & 200m in times of 13.23 seconds and 27.31 seconds. Dylan, meanwhile, recovered from a slow start to finish 4th in his 200m race in a season best time of 23.76 seconds, and ran 11.95 seconds in the 100m. All of the athletes ran well in their first year competing in this age group & will continue to improve as the season progresses.
U20's Dylan Mukhtar, Alex Beal & Josh Gray all competed well in the Midland Counties Championships
Middle Distance Squad
Kettering Floodlit open meeting - saw a number of new PB’s in the 800m with U15 Rio Carr slicing a huge 14 seconds from his PB to record a fine 2:20.07, U20 Josh Cannel in a rare outing over this distance sliced nearly 8 seconds from his PB with 2:07.83, and U15 Ben Brooker continued his fine start to the season with his third consecutive PB over the distance in 2:09.14, with Josh Clutton also running well to set a new 3 second PB with 2:14.65. In the 1500m there were new PB’s for U17 Ryan Raulia 4:43.45 & U17 Freya Batkin 5:10.08.
Watford open meeting - also saw some terrific performances with a breakthrough performance for U15 Alice Bates which saw her record an English Schools Qualifying time of 4:46.78 for the 1500m which has been a long time coming for the talented youngster who now sits at 25th in the UK rankings. In the same race Ben Brooker slice an incredible 28 seconds from his 2017 PB with a fine 4:38.22 & Jack Watson enjoyed a fine run to slice 5 seconds from his PB with 4:29.81.
Alice Bates breakthrough performance to secure an ES quali time for U15G 1500m
The other two stand out performances of the night saw U17 Dylan Bowley set a fine new PB in the 1500m, and set an English Schools qualification time of 4:04.90 and a top 30 UK ranking, and bottom year U20 Emily Williams ran a fine race to set a SB of 4:21.37 to go 3rd in the UK and to close in to within a second of the all-important European U20 Championships qualifying standard of 4:20 which she will look to achieve over the coming month before the GB team is selected.
St. Ives Open meeting saw Kettering’s talented multi-distance athlete U11 Jemima Davey break her own U11 600m club record again with a terrific run of 1:52.43 to go to 8th in the UK rankings, and in this form the club record is sure to be lowered again during the season.
The BMC PB Classic in Milton Keynes again saw some impressive performances from the Harriers, with U17 Dylan Bowley recording another PB in the 800m in the B race with an excellently executed race to record 1:57.50 to close in to half a second of the English Schools qualification time, and Bowley will compete at County Schools over 800m to try and secure the time before the team is selected. In the 1500m there was a brace of PB’s for the Harriers with the most significant a first sub 5 minute clocking for U13 Dylan White who slashed 5 seconds from his PB with a fine run to record 4:57.37. There were also good PB’s for U17’s Josh Clutton & Ryan Raulia 4:39.19 & 4:39.30.
Dylan Bowley 1500m ES Quali time, now looks to secure a quali time for 800m
With County Schools fast approaching and selections for English Schools following the Mason Trophy it's an important 2 weeks for the squads to gain or improve qualification times and impress the selectors. The Harriers Currently have 7 athletes who have reached the English Schools Standard (and some very close), which must be one of the best on record?