A fairly low turn out for the club saw only five U13 boys compete for the chance to win a medal at the last track meet of the season. We had three entrants in the 800m heats and tough qualifying criteria of winner only plus three fastest losers from the three heats made making the final too big a challenge for James Barnes and Jack Adams, both in their first year of U13. Ethan Fiore ran sensibly in heat 3, finishing the fastest of the 3 fastest losers and conserving energy for the final just two hours later. Ethan chose not to go with the leader and instead settled in ahead of the rest and despite gaining ground on the second lap there was not enough track left to make up the gap. A pb and silver medal was fine reward for two races well run.
Reuben Chandler was first up on day two in the sprint hurdles. A strong medal chance was dashed when Reuben was caught by the arm of the hurdler on the lane inside of him, throwing him off his stride and resulting in an agonising 4th place. Equalling his pb would have earned a silver medal on another day.
Christian Hopper repeated the 2016 success of Alex MacHeath to take gold in the 2k walk, continuing the clubs fine tradition in the walk events.
Day two also saw the middle distance trio of James, Jack and Ethan entered in the 1500m, sadly James didn’t make the start line due to a recurring injury. Jack ran well but was someway of his best, although has another year to come in this age group. Ethan went into the race as the fastest in the field but decided to let a boy from Invicta take it on. Pretty soon the two of them were clear and at least a silver medal seemed guaranteed. Ethan remained on the shoulder until just after the bell at which point he went to the front and opened up a sizeable gap that he held all the way to the line, earning himself another PB and the right to be called Kent Champion.