A 71 athlete strong harrier team took part in the 67th NAA Track & Field County Champs. There were many Medals, PBs and club records broken over the weekend. Amongst the very many creditable performances was a standout performance by Lewis-Morgan Barton who won 5 golds from his 5 competitions.
In the u11 races, there were Bronze medals in the 150m for Max Mowforth, Cole Sinnott & Millie Webb respectively. Later in the day, there was another 1-2 as Oliver Read beat home Hal Robinson to win the 600m race while Millie Webb finished 4th beating home Sophie Toseland & Emma Robinson. The next day in the 75m, Max won his event while Millie clinched another bronze medal. In the final u11 race, Hal took home the silver in the 1200m event.
In the sprints, U13 Erin Healy took the sprint double following up a comfortable 200m win with a club record equalling 100m run in 13.4s. In the boys u13 sprint, there was a fine harrier 1-2 in the 200m with Lewis-Morgan beating home Brooklyn Biddle – and this was repeated in the 100m races the next day. Lewis-Morgan also took gold in the u13 sprint hurdles race. In the U15 200m, Sam Bott, Haydn Bennett & Shannon Eady all finished just outside the medals as did Mitchell Hunter in the u17s. In the u20w race, Sheena Britten managed to clinch bronze in her race. In the 300m on the second day, Rebecca Hughes took home the u15 title while Ella Palmer took home the bronze in the u17 race. In the 400m, Ed Cherry and Harry Young finished outside the medals.
There is a separate middle distance report at the bottom of this page
In the field, Hal Robinson continued his medal winning championships with silver in the u11 Long jump with Max Mowforth losing out on countback. In the girls u11 long jump, Millie Webb took home gold to complete her winning weekend. Continuing his standout form throughout the championships, Lewis-Morgan took gold in the U13 long jump winning by nearly half a metre before going onto win the high jump equally comfortably. Alex Beale just missed out on a bronze medal in the u13 long jump by 1cm with only 4cm separating the top 4 places. In the U13G high jump, there was a gold medal win for Harriet Drake-Lee with Fay Robinson taking bronze in the same competition. In the u15 long jump, Haydn Bennett finished just outside the medals but won his shot put competition well (once he had his radar aiming towards the sector!).
In the older field competitions, there was 3 golds for Niamh Bailey in the High Jump, Long Jump & Shot Putt which combined with her Javelin Silver sets up her Heptathlon season well. In the Shot, Niamh set a new club record of 10.37m beating Daisy Gilbert into silver. Annie Gilbert also improved her club record in the same shot competition when finishing second. In the hammer, Daisy retained her championship. There were also a Bronze medal for Meghan Mills-Amissah in the u17 Long jump beating off competition from Ella Palmer & Eleanor Izzard. There were also two medals for Bradley Fox despite his hamstring injury – Gold in the Shot & Silver in the Javelin. Finally there were two more championships for Jumps coach, Dave Folgate (representing Bedford & County) who took Long & Triple jump wins in his stride.
County Championships Medal Bonanza for Middle Distance squad
The 67th Northants Track & Field Championships produced some outstanding results for the middle distance squad, with a record haul of 16 Medals, and no fewer than 20 PB's produced by the squad over the two days, with Emily Williams producing superb performances in both the 800 & 1500m to become a double Gold Medallist.
The Mid May weather was very kind over both days with warm sunshine and light wind speeds which no doubt helped towards some of the PB performances.
In the 600m U11 Boys race Hal Robinson got things rolling with a super Silver Medal finishing just behind fellow Harrier, (And soon to be squad member!) Oliver Reed, with the best of the U11 girls race resulting in good runs for Millie Webb & Sophie Toseland in 4th & 6th position respectively.
Next it was the turn of the 800m runners, and in the U13 Girls race the largest field of the championships the runners were split into two separate time trial races. Emily Williams produced the first of her weekends outstanding performances in the 2nd heat time trial to record a clear 8 second winning margin to take Gold in front of silver medallist R&N Molly Williams, Emily was untroubled with a classy front running display to record a fine time of 2:29.4. There were also fine runs and PB performances for the Robinson sisters Jennifer & Daisy 2:52.0 & 2:55.3, Harriet Drake-Lee with 2:52.8, and Millie Toseland
Next it was the turn for the U13 Boys, running in a large field of 16 athletes both Henri Codling and Dylan Bowley set off at a superb pace with R&N Adam Caulfield to make it a separate 3 horse race race, all 3 powered into the second lap, and Caulfield started to stretch the field at the 600 mark, with Henri & Dylan battling all the way into the home straight, where Henri kicked for home and started to close down the leader, but unfortunately left things too late to pull back the gap. Henri fresh from his week old 9 second PB was rewarded with a superb silver medal, and he again shattered his PB by 5 seconds recording a super-fast 2:22.0, with Dylan Bowley similarly smashing his PB by over 6 seconds recording 2:24.1 for Bronze, with both athletes now eyeing up the 1978 Club Record of 2:20.3 for this season!? Harry Darnell also competing for the Harriers ran well for 10th in 2:42.5
The U15 Girls race also produced a Medal winning performance with Rebecca Hughes running an excellent race and finishing strongly to chase down 2nd place Poppy Carmichael to clinch Bronze with a 3 second PB with 2:27.2, there were also PB performances for Sophie Moss in with 2:33.5 & the fast improving Amy Robinson 2:36.6.
Sadly there was no representation from the Harriers in the U15 & U17 men’s race, but in the U17 Women’s race Beth Gordon in a return to form run an excellent controlled race to sit in behind the pack and finish strongly to set a SB time of 2:23.9 to take the Silver medal behind R&N Lilly Carmichael, Hannah Winstone also ran well to equal her PB in 6th place.
Jess Gordon looking stronger with every race also secured a fine silver medal in the U20 women’s race with an excellent run to set a SB of 2:19.4 behind winner Ellie Welch (2:16.9)
On day two, fresh from her Bronze medal, Rebecca Hughes was in action in the U15 Girls 300m, and went one better than last year to take the Gold medal.
In the U11 1200m combined Boys & Girls race, 9 year old Hal Robinson was again in terrific form to secure a fine silver medal in 4:18.6, to show his strength over both the middle distance events.
Next was the U13 Girls 1500 and Emily Williams again produced the goods to easily clinch her second Gold with a superbly controlled race, Emily looked almost to be walking for the first two laps where she sat in with a steady opening pace, but she decided to push on the pace after 800m and it was just R&N Molly Williams who was able to respond and go with her, with 400m to go Emily started to stretch the pace and opened up a gap which with 200m to go grew significantly after Emily kicked for home with a majestic final 200m to clinch the race with a 8 second winning margin and secure 4 second PB of 5:08.8, with the promise of much more to come with her target of a sub 5 clocking this season. Also running well and setting PB were the Robinson sister Jennifer & Daisy, Fay Robinson & Isabella Moxley
In the U13 Boys 1500m race there was the first of the squads new sub 5 members with bottom year Dylan Bowley again in action to secure his second silver medal with an inspired run, and dip below the magical 5 minute mark with a super-fast 4:54.5 slicing six seconds from his previous best, on any other day this performance could have resulted in a win but the winner Adam Caulfield was in a different class setting a new Championship best performance with a remarkable 4:41.5.
In the U15 Girls 1500 there were no medals but strong PB performances from all the Harriers trio with Sophie Moss top finisher with 5:26.3, and Chloe Hearne & Amy Robinson with 5:33.8 & 5:36.8 respectively, and similarly in the U15 Boys 1500m a good performance from Josh Cannell.
The Combined U17 women/ U20 Women’s race produced two Silver medals and a Bronze, with the highlight being bottom year U17 Claudia Nevett who ran an excellent controlled race to slice 9 seconds from her PB and her first sub 5 clocking with a superb silver medal performance with 4:54.8, finishing runner up behind Lilly Carmichael. Jess Gordon also ran a superb race to win her 2nd silver medal, and slice two seconds from her PB with 4:52.0, finishing behind Ellie Welch. In the same race Fran Ashworth ran a solid race to set a SB and clinch the Bronze medal with 4:58.8, and Abigail Colman also running well for 4th with 5:08.0.
It was the U17 men’s race that produced the closest and most exciting race of the weekend, with Josh Cara and Jack Hope again setting the standard for the age group and seemingly replaying one of their previous titanic1500m battles. Josh Cara who has now returned to form set the early pace with Jack in tow with the R&N pair of Jack Bond & Ben Musgrove, the pace was fast from the outset, and Josh maintained the pressure and by 800 the R&N pair had started to slip back and it was left to Josh and Jack to settle the major medal positions, at the bell jack started to push the pace and took the lead, and opened up a 3-4m gap, but Josh was able to maintain the gap right into the home straight, where Jack was striding towards finishing line with gold in his sight, but in a true test of guts and determination Josh managed to find a turn of pace and slowly close jack down and it was left to the last 2 meters to decide the eventual winner with Josh just maintaining his form through the line getting the nod, and jack desperately dipping and eventually falling over the line suffering some minor scuffs, it was a dramatic end to an exciting race. Both athletes smashed their PB’s to record excellent times, Josh by 12 seconds to win Gold in 4:10.8, and Jack by 8 seconds to take the silver medal in 4:10.9, and both within striking distance of the English Schools Qualification mark of 4:07. Also running a solid race was new recruit and big improver George Glinski setting a great new PB of 4:27.7 for 6th and Edward Cannell running well with 4:43.3.
It was a superb two days of racing, and every athlete who competed deserves to share in the success of what was the best County Championships performance from the squad in recent memory. For many the next 5 weeks now sees the focus switching to running fast times, and to try a secure ES qualification marks.
Shane Smith