15 of the Kettering Town Harriers middle distance squad swamped the 2k race at the Corby AC open with some extremely encouraging results for the season’s opening warm up race over the slightly longer distance of 2km proving that many of the squad have wintered well during the cross country season. There was also strong representation from Dick Capliss sprint group.
Due to the high number competing the race was split with the women first off, and it was a case of starting where you left off for U20 Jess Gordon, who won the race from the fast finishing local rival Ellie Welch in a superb time of 6:51.2, Jess settled in the pack from the start and after two laps had taken the lead and continued to stretch the field until the final 200 where she always had enough in reserve to hold off Welch. Also running an inspired early season opener was sister U17 Beth Gordon who surprised with her excellent time of 7:07.6 to finish in 5th place, with U20 Fran Ashworth also running well over the longer than usual distance to finish in 6th (7:14.3), and U13 Emily Williams who ran superbly to finish in 8th (7:15.5) with a storming finish. Also blowing away the cobwebs with the season’s opener was Abigail Coleman 10th (7:24.3), Rebecca Hughes 11th (7:33.0), Sophie Moss 13th (7:47.9) & Chloe Hearne 14th (7:55.5)
In the Men’s race the Harriers enjoyed a clean sweep taking the top 3 positions, with Josh Cara taking on the pace for the first km splitting at 3:06, but sensing he was tiring a little, U20 Lewis Hays and U17 Jack Hope pushed the pace with two laps to go and quickly opened up a gap, Lewis who felt he had plenty left in the tank following the race powered away on the bell lap and always looked comfortable winning with a time of 6:00.2, with Jack hope setting a new PB for second place with an excellent opener of 6:04.5, and Josh Cara who tired slightly coming home in third with 6:15.1. There was further interest for the Harriers with U17 Edward Cannell finishing a strong race in 5th with 6:31.8, and the U13 pairing of Dylan Bowley & Henri Codling running an excellent race and battling throughout with the former just edging out his rival with a fast sprint to the line to finish in 6th (7:19.7) & 7th (7:21.2) respectively, and also running well was Josh Cannell who finished in 10th (7:42.8).
Also running well at the Open event in the 600m was Harriet Drake-Lee who ran superbly to win her race with a 5 second PB in 2:03.7, with Blainne Conway also setting an excellent 7 second PB finishing in third place with 2:06.0, and U11 Sophie Toseland finishing in 10th with a new PB of 2:26.7.
There was also action in the 1km races, with U13 Jennifer Robinson running well to set a new PB finishing in 8th with 3:40.1, and Josh Coyne running his first race in the Harriers colours running well in 7th position with 3:03.6.
It was also the chance for Dick Capliss sprint group to get in an early season best in competition. Sophie Toseland ran 13.7s for the u11s to finish 5th while elder sister Millie ran a 150m PB finishing in the same position.There were 100m heat wins for Niamh Ruffles, Sam Bott & Ashley McClintock with both Niamh & Sam taking 0.1s off their PBs. Brooklyn Biddle & Erin Healy finished 3rd & 7th in their heats.
In the 200m, there was a heat win for Ashley while Erin, Niamh & Thomas Jawad all set PBs. There was strong attendance in one heat as Erin & Niamh finished 2nd & 3rd while Brooklyn finished 5th.
A good evenings work, with attention now firmly fixed on the next warm up race at the Kettering Open on the 19th where we hope to see most of these athletes take on all comers.
Postal advance entry (with payment) remains open until Thursday night but there is also pay on the day.