Emily Williams & Dylan Bowley, both running their first race of the season at the Watford Opening meeting, ran superb opening race times over 1500m to secure the all-important English Schools Qualification times.
Emily Williams & Dylan Bowley both set early season English Schools Qualification times
On a cool evening more reminiscent of a November XC event, the Watford open meetings with a combination of a sheltered location and highly competitive races always seems to manage to give great opportunities for a fast race. And so it was with Emily Williams, a bottom year Intermediate girl, with her first 1500m of the season following her spring break with a superb race powering her way to her second fastest time ever with 4:34.57 to comfortably set a qualification time for English Schools by over 10 seconds.
Top year Junior Dylan Bowley, who missed out of English Schools last season by setting the qualification time just one week too late is determined not to miss out of English Schools this year and he ran a well-paced race with a superb final 100m to also record his seconds fastest time ever for 1500m with 4:19.03, three seconds inside the qualification time to give him every chance of being selected in June.
Both athletes surge into the top 10 in the UK rankings, and clearly will have much more to give as they reach full fitness in the next 6-8 weeks, in what promises to be an exciting season. Over the next two weekends Emily & Dylan now compete in club Leagues matches, with Dylan doubling up in the 800/ 1500m at the County Champs, & Emily competing in her first BMC Grand Prix meeting in Solihull.
Well done to both athletes in setting the English Schools qualification time!