YDL – Lower Age Group – Fixture 1
Although finishing in last place at the first meeting, great credit goes to the Harriers youngsters at this first fixture. The Team were missing a number of regular athletes – three of them selected to run in the London Mini-Marathon with injury, and holidays – coupled with so many new athletes in first time competition, meant they were up against it from the start, but they did themselves proud including all the newcomers, some of whom had just moved up from the Clubs Sportshall Group including :
Caiden Hesketh – Libby Ansbro – Tom Booth – Khalil Dalal – Ellie Brotherton-Masson – Ethan Joyce – Joshua Jones, Jayden Brammer and Joseph Joyce. Others were doing the events for the first time ever in League competition so on the day picking up up eight wins, seven second places and 8 third places represented a great reward for these athletes.
Full Results HERE
Among the really good performances that a number of the athletes put in, top of the tree was the continued development of U15 Hammer Thrower – Charlotte Williams, who won her event with a new PB of 54.39m, leaving her still undefeated in 2016 and still at number one in the National Rankings. She also took 2nd spot in the ‘A’ Discus (20.73m).
But Charlie wasn’t the only PB performer on the day. Christie Sturgess gained a 2nd place in the U13’s 75m Non-Scoring Race and a new PB of 11.1 and went on to gain a 2nd place in the 70mH ‘b’ race with a time of 12.9. U15 Harry Jackson cut nearly half a second of his time for a new PB of 16.0 in the U15 100m ‘A’ Race whilst U13 Ethan Barbarewicz followed suit in the ‘B’ 100m with a new PB of 15.6. U15 Leon Thomas set a new PB in the 200m ‘A’ (30.6) whilst U13 Harvey Ashworth took 9 seconds of his previous best for a new PB of 2.32.2 in the 800m ‘A’ race with Ethan Barbarewicz knocking his time down by seconds for a new PB of 2.46.8.
Another massive PB for Eleesha Charnley in the U13 800m ‘A’ race finishing 3rd in 2.34.7, some 9 seconds faster than her previous best and she was backed up in the ‘B’ race by Eleanor Allsop who took 2nd place in 2.47.7 in her first ever trip over the distance. Leah Hoole, another one of the rising U13 youngsters ran 2.43.6 in the non-scoring race.
U13 Charlotte Corrigan is going very well which was reflected in her 3rd placed 4.12.00 in the ‘A’ 1200m, a new PB by over 3 seconds. Equally impressive was Hollie Cubbons win in the U13 ‘B’ 1200m with a time of 4.15.7, the first time she has raced the distance. There a good number of other athletes who were tacking events for the first time and Kyle Taylor-Pomfret was one of them in the U13 1500m finishing 3rd in 5.37.0. When Kyle threw 22.15m in the Javelin he added well over three metres to his previous best distance and set a new PB placing 2nd in the ‘A’ event.
Myah Booth (U13) had an impressive day winning the 70mH ‘A’ race in 12.4, the Shot Putt ‘A’ with a throw of 8.82m and placed 2nd in the Javelin with a throw of 19.48m. U13 Edward Lee ran his first ever T & F meeting – usually preferring cross country – running a solid 16.9 in the 75mHurdles for 4th place. Another first time youngster in League competition U13 Jayden Brammer had a great start winning the ‘B’ race in 16.5.
U15 Solomon Brown set a big, big new PB in the 80mH cutting a whopping 2 seconds off his previous best when he placed 2nd in a time of 13.6 and was supported by Harry Jackson in the ‘B’ race in 3rd spot (17.2). Solomon was just a few cms off his previous best in the Long Jump too, clearing 4.17m. Emily Raine (U15) added 5cms to her High Jump previous best height to set a new PB of 1.30m, ran 13.8 in the 100m and cleared 4.01m in the Long Jump. There was a big new PB for Leah Hoole in the U13 Long Jump by 20cms, setting a new distance of 3.41m. New member and U15 Cameron Harris set a new PB in the ‘A’ Shot putt with 7.82m (6th), then came 3rd in the Discus ‘A’ with 19.85m and gained another 3rd place in the Javelin ‘A’ with 29.77m which represented a really good first outing for the Club.
U15 Eloise Littlefair won the U15 Shot Putt clearing 10.80m in distance and took a 3rd spot in the Javelin ‘A’ with 24.45m. U15 Abigail Brown was competing for the first time and finished 5th in the Shot Putt ‘B’ with 6.15m, 5th in the Javelin ‘B’ with 13.17m and rounded the day off with a fine win in the Discus ‘B’ reaching 16.21m. There was another PB, this time on the Shot Putt for Chloe Jameson (U13) where she finished in 5th spot (4.81m) an improvement of half a metre. U13 Kieran Carroll added three and half metres to his Javelin for a new PB when he won the ‘B’ event with a throw of 2013 and then went on to a throw of 5.38, in the Shot Putt for 4th place.
All in all this was a pretty strong performance by these youngsters and will undoubtedly stand them in good stead. When the other athletes come back to the squad the Team will be strengthened and hopefully they can go on to better things during the season.
♦
At the Watford Open during the week – April 16th – Zac Howe entered the 800m and set a new PB for the 800m in his first race of the season with a time of 1.53.74.
Full Results HERE
Zac spoke to the Club afterwards and was obviously pleased telling us that he “Would have liked to have been in the quicker heat afterwards to get a good race – I had to lead the whole way round – happy with the time though at this stage of the season”.
