As a mark of the depth in the current Harriers middle distance squad, four athletes qualified for the prestigious National Prep Schools Athletics finals after regional selection at Bedford in June representing Kimbolton School. The finals this year were held at Nuneaton on a bright but cool day after a 3 year hiatus owing to Covid.
Jemima “Dilly” Davey was competing in her final race for Kimbolton School and signed off in style with a thrilling victory over 800m in the U14 Girls.
Arguably better suited to the 1500m Davey went into the final knowing she would likely need to beat Suffolk athlete Bella Taylor (ranked UK#1 at u14) who had beaten Davey 4 consecutive times over 800m.
The race started off at a brisk pace with Davey sitting in 4th, at 300m Taylor surged to the front Davey tracked her closely with the two athletes pulling away from the field, this was now a two horse race.
Looking very strong on the back straight with 170m to go Davey kicked hard and the Harriers youngster surged past Taylor moving 3 metres clear. Taylor responded at 80m to go, but Davey looked strong and very relaxed to push further away to win by 8 metres for a memorable victory.
Jemima Davey with a brilliant victory in the National Prep-Schools 800m final for U14 Girls
The result is a perfect warm up for English Schools where Davey is running 1500m in Manchester at the weekend.
Tiggy Gurthrie-Brown was running in the u12 800m with high hopes after comfortably winning her regional qualifier. Guthrie-Brown set about her task well and after the 1st lap was well positioned in a pack of 5 athletes, at 250m to go when seeking to overtake the Surrey athlete she was cut up and clipped by a Sussex girl which took the wind out of her sails. Guthrie-Brown was disappointed to have finished in 5th but the experience will be invaluable for her race craft in the future.
The u12 1500m had Rafferty Davey competing for the Harriers. The race became stretched out at 400m but Davey continued to battle against some highly ranked boys to finish a very credible 7th position.
The final squad member competing was Clara Booth. Booth was competing in her first major final in the u12 1500m a stark difference to the mud and hills of the cross country season which she enjoys so much. Booth finished 10th and will again welcome the experience for the future.