The opening Midland League fixture of the season, Held at Kettering Thurston drive track saw a terrific performance from the Harriers to take a decisive victory. It was a bolstered squad with many athletes doubling up in events to guarantee a good points return, and on the day there were some outstanding performances.
One of the highlights was a terrific performance in the 4x400m, comprising of 4x U17 athletes, Josh Geddes, Idayi Jumbe, Ryan Raulia & Dylan Bowley who blew away some good competition to win comfortably by 40m in a new Club Record time of 3:38.5 slicing over 8 seconds off the previous best and jumping to 5th in the UK Rankings.
Record Breakers Dylan Bowley, Idayi Jumbe, Josh Geddes & Ryan Raulia
The sprint squad, made up of a team of athletes mainly from the U17 age group, faired well with some outstanding performances on the day.
Logan Reid and Joe Bradley both won their 100m races in 11.4 seconds and 11.6 seconds respectively.
Logan Reid fine win in the 100m in 11.4 seconds
Joe Bradley then went on to win his 200m race in a new personal best of 22.9 seconds. Both athletes have now achieved the qualifying standard to enter the England U17 Championships in August - Logan in the 100m, and Joe in the 200m.
Joe Bradley new PB in the 200m & England Athletics U17 championship qualifying standard.
In the B 200m, Dylan Mukhtar finished 2nd to equal his personal best of 23.7 seconds. Meanwhile, in the non scoring races Cole Sinnott finished 1st in the 200m in a personal best of 23.7 seconds, and Max Mowforth finished 1st in the 100m in a time of 11.8 seconds, and 2nd in the 200m in 24.1 seconds. A fast improving Jack Abbott produced two personal bests in his races with times of 12.0 seconds and 24.7 seconds.
Cole Sinnott also competed in the long jump where he produced a personal best of 5.05 metres. Josh Gray, competing in his 2nd outing this season in the 400m hurdles at the new height for athletes in the U20 age group, easily won his race in a time of 62.5 seconds. Brandon Frost, in his Harrier debut, produced a personal best jump of 1.45 metres on the day and showed potential to improve on this during the season.
In the women’s races, Cynthia Ike finished 2nd in the 100m and 200m in 12.9 seconds and 26.0 seconds respectively, with the latter being a personal best. Natalie Short stepped in at short notice to run the B races and won her 100m race in 13.6 seconds, and produced a personal best of 27.9 seconds in her 200m. Annabelle Udo competed in the non scoring 200m in which she produced a personal best of 27.8 seconds.
The men won their 4 x 100m relay in a time of 46.7 seconds. They will look to improve on this time in their next meeting. The women, meanwhile, finished 2nd in their relay in a time of 53.8 seconds.
The Middle Distance squad also enjoyed a fine day with the standout performance of the day a superb 2k steeplechase by U20 Jack Watson making his debut in the event. Jack coped well with the challenge and with further practice & races could make this very successful event for himself, finishing in a fine 2nd place in 7:28.1 with a UK ranking of 54th. Also making his debut in the event in the B string was Josh Cannell who also ran well to finish in 3rd overall & 1st B string in 8:22.0.
Brilliant debut in the 2k steeplechase for Jack watson
In the 800m there was a god run from U20 Thomas Jawad for 3rd place in 2:10.1, while vey45 Tony James hammered the competition in the B string race to win by 15 second in a comfortable 2:13.0. For the women there were good performances from two of the seniors with Elaine Fairbrother taking third in he A race in 2:53.6 & Chrissi Stewart taking the win in the B string in 2:53.8.
In the 1500m Calum Cox ran well for 3rd place in the Men’s A race in 4:8.2, with Daisy Robinson & Babs Poncia 4th & 3rd in the A & B women’s race respectively. Edward Cannell ran well in the 5,000m setting a SB in 16:55.5 to finish in 3rd place, with the busy Jack Watson taking 3rd in the B race in 18:28.4 while Elaine Fairbrother took third in the women’s 3,000m in 12:46.1
The throws contingent scored valuable points for the team across the day beginning with the men’s hammer, V40’s Matt Bell (43.62m) 1st A and Ross Brown (14.40m) 5th B. Lorna Barlow was the only representative in the corresponding ladies event where she threw a 4kg sb of 25.34m taking 3rd place.
Annabelle Udo had her 1st outing with the Javelin and despite throwing the senior weight came 3rd in the A string with a throw of 15.53m she was joined by Lorna who came 2nd in the B string. Pete Mills V40 launched the Men’s Javelin to 33.55m (4th A) whilst Josh Gray’s efforts returned a fine 4th place for the B string.
In the Shot Putt Matt Bell 7.98m (3rd A) was joined by V35 Sprinter Chris Johnson 7.03m pb (2nd B). Multi-Eventers Annabelle Udo and Matilda Braithwaite continued to show their versatility by going up weight categories and returning distances of 7.27m 3rd A and 6.42m 1st B respectively.
The Men’s discus – often referred to as a dinner plate – saw Ross Brown attain a pb of 16.45m to take 3rdB with Matt Bell 24.99m taking 2nd A. Matilda Braithwaite sb19.31m 4th A was joined by Lorna Barlow sb 16.93m taking 1st B.
COUNTY SCHOOLS COMBINED EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The following day squad members Matilda Braithwaite and Annabelle Udo both competed in the County Schools Combined Events Championships at Moulton College. The girls had to compete in 5 events during the day - 80m hurdles, high jump, long jump, javelin, and 800m. Both girls put in fine performances and finished 2nd and 4th overall to qualify to represent Northamptonshire Schools