Day 2 of a busy weekend for the Harriers saw the youngsters take centre stage in the opening HofE fixture on a surprisingly warm, pleasant & sunny Redditch. There were some outstanding performances from the competing athletes which saw many setting big early season PB’s.
In the Middle Distance squad the performance of the day was U15 Dylan Bowley who won the upper age group (U17) 800m with a superb race which saw him go out hard from the start and front run the whole race to set a fine new 4 second PB 2:05.1, and another English Schools Qualification time following his 1500m race on Wednesday. Dylan also ran his first competitive 400m to set a highly respectable 56.3 (TBC) on tired legs to show his raw speed is improving! Making it a A&B U17 800 double win, was Jack Walton who won with a tremendous last 60m kick to equal his PB 2:16, and he also doubled up to finish 3rd in the 400m again equalling his 60 second PB!
Dylan Bowley superb win in U17M 800m & an ES Qualification time!
The Raulia Twins recent additions to the MD squad both produced huge PB performances to show the squad training is paying dividends, firstly Brandon with a fine race in the U15B 800m for third place with a huge 6 second PB, but not to be outdone twin Ryan produced a tremendous last lap in the U15B 1500m race to set an incredible 25 second PB to narrowly avoid dipping below the magical 5:00 barriers, with 5:00.7!
Also agonising JUST avoiding dipping below 5 minutes was Ollie Read, who was targeting his first race to breakthrough this barrier, sadly despite a super 4 second PB he equalled the time with a dead 5:00.0!!
Charlotte Maywood & Harriett Jolley both ran well in the 800m with very respectable opening times of 2:34.2 for second place & 2:35.8 for 4th place respectively. Both girls also ran fine 300m to earn additional points!
Other highlights was a superb 600m win from U11 Jacob Asher-Relf who destroyed a large field & narrowly missed setting a new club record held by Dylan Bowley by just less than half a second, and this must surely be broken in the next few races by the talented youngster who also showed he has speed to spare by winning the U11B 75m sprint.
Jacob Asher-Relf destroyed a good 600m field and won 75m sprint
Adam Jawad running his first ever 1500m ran a stonking race to set a fabulous time of 5:20 to show he has more to give at this event as well as his preferred 800m, and he also showed his great speed by winning the U13B 100m!
In the U13 800m Ollie Barbosa set a great new PB of 2:41.4 ahead of George Separovic who ran 2:46.2 just outside his PB, Josh Cannell also ran just outside of his day old PB with a fine third place in the U17B 1500 with 4:41.3.
From the Sprint Squad a total of 11 personal bests were set, with Dylan Mukhtar managing to achieve two in both of his U17 races, 11.8 in the 100m, and 24.3 in the 200m. Also achieving a double was Cynthia Ike, in her debut league meeting for the Harriers. She finished 2nd in her U15 100m race, in a time of 13.0, and followed this up by winning the 200m, after running a blisteringly fast bend, in a time of 27.0 seconds.
New sprint star Cynthia Ike with a fantastic win in the U15G 200m
Personal bests were also achieved by Max Mowforth, 12.2 in the U15 boys 100m, Sam Harrison, 25.7 in the U15 200m, Cole Sinnott, 13.6 in the U15 boys 100m, Ellen Smith, 13.3 in the U15 girls 100m, Alex Beale, 27.5 in the U17 200m.
Lewis-Morgan Barton was just outside of his personal best in the U17 boys high jump, but ran a new best time of 12.2 in his 100m race in which he finished 3rd. His multi event partner, Josh Gray, finished 3rd in the U17 boys 200m in 25.5, and ran 15.3 to finish 2nd his 100m hurdles race.
The newest, and youngest member of the squad, Asha Johnson, blew the nerves away to achieve a personal best of 14.6 when finishing 4th in her 100m race.
Outstanding performances were also achieved by U15 girls, Matilda Braithwaite and Harmony Hart, and U17 girls, Annabelle Clotworthy, Rhianna Parris-Smith, and Kira Lear.
In the multi events U13G Jasmine Anderson made her debut for the Club and finished her 200m B race for 2nd in 31 seconds and also competed well in the shot. Others competing in this age category for the first time were Ella Fairbrother and Ruby McLeod both of whom competed in the hurdles for the first time and also did extra events for Club points. Also in the same category Scarlett Maxwell-Munn had an outstanding day gaining PB’s in the High jump, long jump and 100m. In the U13B Oliver Laskey also had a busy day jumping 4.30 in the long jump, a fine 44.8 in his 300m debut and also competed in the discus.
In the U11 Boys the outstanding sprint duo of William Robertson and Kaiden Ramsey finished 1st and 2nd in their 75m races and both finished 1st in their long jump A and B string events. Both are exciting prospects for the future. For the U11 girls Issy Brockway, Darcie Cox and Chloe Oliver all ran PB’s in their 600m.
Overall the Club finished in 6th place out of 8 teams – this is a rather surprising result given how well the Club performed on the day. This does however, illustrat how important it is to try to fill some of those missing events. As the Club develop new talent, particularly in multi discipline, the Club will continue to improve at future fixtures.
Well done to all the athletes who competed in the opening round of the Heart of England there were a good number of outstanding performances in the opening round, and plenty to feel optimistic about heading into the County Championships this weekend, where medals will be up fro grabs!
(Aplogies for any performances missed, Further details will be added when the official results are received)