Track & Field
Club Trials
The outdoor track season kicked off on Saturday with our annual open young athlete trials. The event attracted just over 120 entries with 60% being club members but also a solid 40% of non members, who hopefully will consider joining after their testing out their skills and abilities.
Performance wise there was a multitude of PB’s as our juniors emerged from a year of growth and winter training programs.
U17 Women:- Faith Assah had a double PB running 12.82 in the 100 and then 26.05 in the 200 and it won’t be long before she gets into the 25’s. Hannah Bridge improved on her indoor PB to throw 14.76 in the shot put event, a distance that leaves her just 3cm off the UK Number 1 position.
U15 Girls:- Iris Williams ran a 67 second first lap in her 800 and paid the price on the second lap finishing in 2.27.88. Pace judgement should improve as the season goes on which will result in much quicker times . In the field Daisy Butler jumped a 4.29m PB in the long jump in her first U15 competition.
U13 Girls:- Celia Yeatman broke the 3 minute barrier in the 800 with a strong 2:54.25 timing.
U17 Men:- New member Javan Gordon showed his speed winning his 100m heat in a slightly windy 11.39 and then following this up with a legal PB of 23.49 in the 200m. Divine Akinlolu also ran 11.39 following up on his successful indoor season and the club has a wealth of talent in this area. Aiden Ward returned from football training to run a 2:12.88 800m but was just pipped to the line by the ever improving U15 Sam Scrase-Field. Aiden Williams showed the benefit of regular training as he took 30 seconds off his 800m PB running 2:16.10. In the field Josh Baker moved up a weight to the 700 gram javelin but still beat his PB from last year with a throw of 47.47m.
U15 Boys:- Michael Bridge also moving up an age group and a weight, set a PB of 11.46 to put himself comfortably in the UK top 10 for shot put. Earlier in the day he had run a PB 100 (13.93) and threw a PB javelin (34.58m) to show his versatility.
U13 Boys:- Jimi Babalola was the fastest of the U13 boys in the 100m with a time of 14.44 whilst Monty Brown was best over 800m in 2:43.09.
Lee Valley Open
Four club members crossed the river to Lee Valley for their annual pre-season open meet. Dante Legister took on Dwain Chambers over 100m and finished a credible 4th recording 11.23 into a strong headwind, Tom Ravenscroft ran into an even stronger wind in his 100m recording 14.29 compared to 13.68 at Sutcliffe the previous day. Fuad Busoir opened his 400 hurdles campaign with 58.44 and declared himself happy with his stride pattern if not his time whilst in the field Katie Marsh threw 32m in the javelin to start her summer campaign.
Medway & Maidstone Open
Kema Jr. Onyemaechi (U15B) ran a windy 100m PB of 12.13s and Aniket Iyengar (U15B) recorded 5:06.29 over 1500m for a new PB.
Watford Open
Holly Dixon took her excellent winter form onto the track winning the Watford Open 3000m in a PB of 9:28.92.
Road Running
Four Harriers completed the Brighton Marathon: 124th Christian Poulton 2:55:56 (2nd M55-59), 255th James Pitts 3:03:03, 357th Ian Miller 3:09:02 & 2937th Vi Chu 4:01:35.
Earlier in the week Chris Loudon (M35) won the Vets AC 5k in Battersea Park going sub-16 for the first time with a PB of 15:51. In the same race Ian McCarthy (M65) finished in 23:39.
Also at Battersea Park, in a 10k race on Saturday, Lewis Baker was 4th in 34:28, and Catherine Martin was 5th female in 40:25, a new PB for her.
At the Sutcliffe parkrun Caroline Ford beat all the men as well as all the women with a fantastic time of 17:04, the third fastest female parkrun anywhere that day. Ray Ramsay was 6th in 18:17, just 2 seconds off his PB. Also running were Mick Ellsmore (23:38) and Frances Nestor (27:55).
And finally: in the Bedgebury 5k "Canicross", Crumble was accompanied by Paul Kent and got round in 32:14. It could have been faster but for one large muddy puddle, 4 wee’s (the dog, not Paul) and numerous stops for sniffing. He was first M60 (Paul, not the dog).