KTH Open
There were some outstanding performances from the Middle Distance squad in the KTH June Open Meeting, especially for some of the younger generations coming through.
U11 Amelie Chymcakova running a terrific new 0.4 sec PB in the U11 75m (11.33 for top 20 UK ranking) and then returning to show her versatility to run a near 11 second PB in the 600m winning the race in 2:02.04, It was also good to see new addition Olivia Henderson running a fine time in her first ever 800m with 3:08.07.
Fine double PB for 10 year old Amelie Chymcakova in the 75m and 600m
The 800m 'A' was a a terrific contest with George Separovic leading from the gun to win the race in a new PB of 2:07.23.
Also running new PB's in the 800m were U13 Oliver Smith who sliced 1 second of his PB running 2:21.78, with U15 Sabina Lawton smashing her PB with a near 4 second improvement running 2:22.44, and U17 Iona Ellwood making a late decision to swap to the 800m, rewarded with a fine run which smashed her PB by nearly seven seconds in 2:24.65.
Iona Ellwood (left) and Sabina Lawton both setting new lifetime bests in the 800m
In the 'B' 800 U15 Thomas Williams running in his first ever 800m ran a super time of 2:32.44, with no doubt more to come, with Freya Allitt continuing to improve running another PB of 2:46.63, and Callum Johnson running 2:46.60.
U20 800m specialist, Alice Bennett doubled up in the 400m & 200m to get a good speed workout with a 58.81/ 27.18 run respectively.
Watford Wednesday Open
Watford has been providing the ideal environment for many years with the high quality midween wednesday MD opens giving athletes super high quality races on a fast track.
There were some terrific performance in the 1500m races with U15 Elsie Bennett running a superb race to smash her 1500m by over 16 seconds and close in on the magical sub 5:00 barrier, Bennett has been struggling with niggles at the start of the season so it was great to see her coming into shape and she will look to build from this over the next few months.
Also smashing their PB was U17 Iona Ellwood who smashed her 2002 PB by 8 seconds and become the 5th member of the Middle Distance Squad to dip below 5:00 mins this season for 1500m with a superb run in 4:58.67, looking full of running in the final lap there will be more to come from Iona in the next few weeks.
U17 Iona Ellwood with her first sub 5:00 clocking and U15 Elsie Bennett with a 16 seconds PB in the 1500m
U20 Alice Bates has been struggling to transfer her superb training into track performances, but she wound back the clock to run a superb SB of 4:25.82 to head to 10th in the UK rankings and set a U20 championships qualification time. Bates, who has settled in well at Birmingham University, will hope she can get more consistency with her races as the season progresses.
There were also good performances from Tiggy Guthrie-Brown (5:06.19) and Peyton Almond (4:53.59) who heads to her first English Schools Championships in 2 weeks time, both perhaps paying a high price by going with the fast early pace.
There were also some great performances over the weekend with a number of the squad competing at the Eastern AA Track & Field Championships (A seven county inter-county competition).
U13 Josh Spavins won a superb Silver medal in the 800m, competing in a single 13 athlete race Spavins managed to get a far better start after working on this in training and it proved successful when he finished in a clear 2nd place in 2:20. Also winning a Silver medal in the 1500m was U15 Clara Booth with a fine run, with Tiggy Guthrie-Brown just out of the medals in her 800m final in 4th place. All three athletes will compete for Kimbolton at the National Prep-School final at Birmingham in a few days time.
Clara Booth Silver Medal in the U15G 1500m & Joshua Spavins also took the Silver in the U13 B 800m
In the County Mile Champs, held during the annaul Chairmans Cup at Daventry AC's track, also saw a fine one/two in the U15 boys race with Harriers Harlee Hooker taking the county title & Gold medal in 5:06 with the Silver medal going to Oliver Smith in 5:21.
Harlee Hooker (Right) and Oliver Smith won Gold & Silver medals respectively in the U15B County Mile
Well done to everyone who ran.