There were some brilliant performances from the KTH middle distance squad at the opening Watford open meeting which saw some impressive new PB’s. Conditions were near ideal with just a gentle breeze and much warmer conditions than the KTH open just 3 days earlier.
In the 400m, Ryan Raulia running his first competitive 400m race looked very impressive in running 54.90, executing the difficult distance to perfection and no doubt on this showing this is an event he can make real progression in this season. Morgan Potter who will also concentrate more on the 400m distance this season also opened his 400m account with a fine 53.60 which is a fine opening time and just half a second from his 2018 PB, and over the next few weeks Potter will look to make further progression.
In the 800m there were some outstanding performance, Alice Bennett, making her KTH debut since transferring from R&N late March, she smashed her PB by over 4 seconds to cruise just outside of the UK top 10 with an hugely impressive performance especially considering she has missed some key training sessions due to a virus. Bennet set about business with a great start sitting in the mid pack and splitting in a fast 67 seconds she continued to work hard along the back straight and produced a strong finish over the final 150m to powered her way to 4th place in 2:19.71 less than a second off the all-important English Schools qualification time and the fastest U15 performance of the night. On this evidence Bennett will have much more to offer going forward, and surly the ES qualification is just a matter of time for the 12 year old.
Emily Williams, who had re-arranged her schedule to run a 800m early season to prepare for her recent call up to represent England in the World Schools Cup championships in Croatia mid-May, didn’t enjoy the best of races, getting chopped on 3-4 occasions in an untidy race. Williams still ran an impressive mid-April opener of 2:11.12, and she will she look to build on this prior to the championships, and can console herself with the fact she set an ES qualifier first race and is just 0.1sec from the KTH U20 800m club record.
Dylan Bowley the final 800m competitor had a superb opener, setting a half second PB as he closes in on the ES qualification time of 1:57.0, which based on his opening race this will be achievable goal this season. Bowley set the pace from the start and split in a fast 57 seconds, perhaps tiring a little at 200m, he again kicked in on the home straight to record a fine 1:57.93, and with more races under his belt he will hold onto his first lap pace through to the finish.
800m trio off to a flying start, Alice Bennett, Dylan Bowley & Emily Williams
Well done to everyone who ran.