The legendary Watford open meeting, this time hosting a series of 1500m races which are held bi-weekly, again brought out the best in the Harriers Middle Distance squad with 7 new lifetime bests, 2 seasons’ bests and a new Club record for the remarkable Dylan Bowley who has set 4 new club records this year, one for the 800m & three for the 1500m.
The meeting got off to a great start with U13 Freya Batkin in her first Watford race slicing 5 seconds from her best with 5:42.92, the Robinson sisters, U15 Jennifer & U17 Amy, followed with a typical close race between the two resulting in a victory for Jennifer with 5:22.21, and Amy slicing 5 seconds from her least favoured event with 5:22.49. U13 Ollie Read & U15 Danielle Gaskell also in their first Watford meeting both produced decent runs just off their best with 5:20.27 & 5:05.40 respectively, and U20 Fran Ashworth produced a SB with a solid 4:49.79.
U17 Claudia Nevett returning to good form also enjoyed a fine race to dip below 5:00 for the first time this season and set a SB of 4:58.82, in a race which also saw 800m specialist Ella Palmer in her first race since English Schools “trying out” the 1500m and recording a solid PB of 5:10.72.
Two of the clubs rising stars put in superb performances with U13 Dylan Bowley running a superbly paced and powerful race belying his size to finish third and set this third U13 1500m club record this season with a two second PB to cement his position at 6th in the UK national rankings. U15 Emily Williams fresh from her debut at English schools where she made the 800 Junior Girls final had decided to switch to 1500m and she again produced a superb performance to slice 5 seconds from her PB to record 4:47.31 and show she has much more to give at this event after a few more races.
U15 Fynn Batkin ran a half second PB with a fine run to record 5:35.27 & U20 Jack Hope followed up his week old PB with yet another 2 second improvement to close in on the magical 4:00 mark with a fine run to record 4:04.68.
Well done to all the athletes.