Midland League #1

Midland League

The Harriers enjoyed a good opening fixture in the Midland League which saw them finish in third place overall with 279 points just 14 points off 2nd place Solihull & Small Heath AC in a match which was easily won by host club Banbury Harriers AC with 425 points. This was a respectable finish especially bearing in mind the match was in April long before many athletes are ready to race, and hopefully better performances will follow later on in the series.

There were some terrific performances from the athletes travelled to Banbury on Saturday 22nd April to compete in the Division 4SE fixture. New rules regarding point scoring allowed 3 athletes to compete in each event and score points for the club.

In the Sprints, men’s 100m A race, Ryan Amesimeku was untroubled, winning in 11.1 seconds to equal his season best time. The B race saw Emmanuel Mbu, in his first 100m race of the season, also win in 11.7 seconds. A hat trick of wins was completed when Zorhann Giraud, debuting in the league, won his race in 11.5 seconds. The wind speed in his race was plus 2.2, just over the legal limit of 2.0, but it was an improved run following his run at the first Kettering open meeting.

Ryan Amesimeku untroubled in his 100m win in the A string race to equal his SB

The wind also played its part in all of the women’s 100m races, resulting in all of the races being over the legal limit. In the A race, Harriet Cleaver finished 2nd in a close run race with Solihull & Small Heath’s, Lily Conduit, in a time of 13.1 seconds, with Conduit running 13.0 second, with a plus 2.7 wind speed. The B race saw Elizabeth Reading romp away with a win in 13.1 seconds, with a plus 2.1 wind speed. Sonal Rathod was in the C race on the day, which she won in 13.4 seconds with a plus 2.1 wind speed. Holly Abbott also ran in the C race as a non scorer, and finished 3rd, in 14.0 seconds.

Harriett Cleaver fine performances in the 100m & 200m A String races

The men’s 200m saw Emmanuel competing in the A race, and Zorhann competing in the B. Both athletes won their races, with Emmanuel recording a time of 23.4 seconds, plus 2.2 wind, and Zorhann running a PB of 24.1 seconds with a legal wind. The wind also died down for the A and B races in the women’s races. Harriet Cleaver once again finished 2nd to Conduit, in a time of 27.5 seconds in the A race, while Elizabeth Reading won her race in a PB of 26.9 seconds in the B. The C race saw the Harrier athletes finishing in the top 3 positions as the non scoring athletes were included in the same race. Scoring for the club was Sonal Rathod who won the race in 28.3 seconds. She was followed in by Ellie Warboys in 28.4 seconds, and finishing 3rd was Holly Abbott in 28.7 seconds. The race was, however, hampered by a plus 2.6 wind speed.

In the longer sprints Cole Sinnott competed in his 1st 400m race of the season which he easily won, pulling away from his competitors, in a PB of 50.7 seconds. Ben Brooker also easily won the B String race in 53.1 a SB. In the womens race competing over the distance for the first time Chelsie Locker finished 2nd in 63.6. In the 400m hurdles, Josh Gray was also untroubled, winning in 62.1 seconds.

The men’s 4 x 100m relay team won their race in 45.9 seconds, with Solihull and Small Heath’s team finishing 2nd in 49.8 seconds. The result was reversed in the women’s race which saw Solihull & Small Heath win in 52.4 seconds, with the Harriers 2nd in 52.4 seconds. The men’s 4 x 400m was a close run race that saw Josh Cannell, Ben Brooker & Rio Carr keep the Harriers in contention, with last leg runner, Cole Sinnott, just edged out into 2nd place by the Banbury Team by the margin of 0.7 sec.

The Middle Distance squad were also in action and they scored good points in the mens match with Lucas Rogers finishing in third place in the A string 800m with 2:04.8, and David Locker finishing in 2nd place in the B string race in 2:05.5 & returning later in the day to show his versatility in finishing in a fine 2nd place over 5,000m in 17:12.4, with Josh Cannell running well in the B string race to win in 18:06.6. Rio Carr had a fine race to easily win the A string 1500m in 4:24.3.

The Throws & Jumps also produced a good return of points with Matt Bell winning the B string Shot in 7.20, and finishing in third place in both the Hammer and discus with 18.04m & 24.68m respectively. Jack Abbott won the B string Discus in 16.50m and finished third in the A string Shot with 8.17m. In the High Jump Pete Mills won the B string with a jump of 1.50m, while Reinis Batner finished 3rd in the A string with 1.75m. For the womens High Jump Toni Robison secured maximum points in the B string with 1.30m, while Ellie Warboys finished 3rd in the A string with 1.40m, also securing points for a 5th place finish in the Long Jump.

Well Done to everyone who competed.

BUCS Championships

University students, Emmanuel Mbu and Cole Sinnott, both competed in this year’s championships in Manchester, held over the bank holiday weekend. It was the first time that both athletes had competed in the annual event.

Emmanuel competed in the 100m and 200m events, representing University of Wolverhampton. In the 100m, held on Saturday, he finished 4th in his heat in a season’s best of 11.58 seconds. The winner of his race, Tyler Panton, of Brunel University, went on to pick up the silver medal in the final. Emmanuel was drawn in lane 8 in his 200m race on the Sunday, and unfortunately, had the misfortune of being disqualified for a lane infringement.

Cole competed in the 400m heats on the Saturday, representing the University of Kent. Drawn in lane 8, he ran a strong race to finish in 3rd position in a personal best time of 50.55 seconds. That time qualified him to go through to the semi final on the Sunday. This time he was drawn in the more favourable lane 2, and yet again, ran a superb race to set a new PB of 50.22 seconds, finishing in 6th place.

Cole Sinnott two new PB making great progress to the BUCS Semi-finals