The KTH Open Meeting was again blessed with excellent weather and some top class performances to round off the track and field season.
One never knows who to expect at our Open Meeting, as there is no pre-booking, so it was quite a surprise to welcome Ramunas Butkus, former Lithuanian Javelin Champion, whose PB is over 72m, and GB international multi-eventer Louise Hazel to the Leisure Village track.
Butkus produced a superb series of 60m plus throws, whilst a lot of attention was focused on another field event, the High Jump. Kettering athletes Niamh Bailey (1.60m PB) and Jamie Dean (1.80m) jumped superbly but they were slightly upstaged by Leamington's Cosima Berry (a second-claim Kettering athlete) whose 1.73m clearance moved her up to 2nd on this year's Under 17 rankings, and Coventry's Karl Robbins, who cleared the magic 2.00m mark.
On the track there were some excellent performances, particularly by a group of sprinters from Birchfield Harriers. Ingmar Vos from the Netherlands clocked 11.2, whilst Bernice Wilson was top woman with 11.8. In a high-quality 400m, Shem Nelson, also from the Birmingham club, ran a swift 49.6. In the 200m Nadine Okyeru's 24.0 stood out.
But the Open Meeting is also about local youngsters getting experience of competition and it was good to see a lot of red and white Kettering vests. There was one club record, as Grace Linnett's 22.8 in the 150m eclipsed Nicole Roberts' Under 11 record from 2002.
The willingness of so many club members to help with officiating ensured that the meeting ran smoothly; thanks to all who helped.
We'll do it all again in April!