Yet another busy weekend of track and field athletics saw the club firing on all cylinders. At the National Championships in Manchester, Daryll Neita stormed to wins in both the 100m and 200m running a world class 10.80 in the final and beating Dina Asher-Smith into second place. In the 200m she moved away from the field down the home straight to win again in 22.34s and has now been selected to represent GB at the up and coming World Championships in Oregon which starts on July 15th.
Daryll Neita UK 100m Champion
Just like Daryll , Sabrina Sinha has been a club member since a very young age and her years of experience in the sport put her in good stead in a tactical 1500m final at Manchester. After a slow first few laps Laura Muir stormed away from the field but Sabrina showed her strength and determination to hang on through the last 400m and grab a well deserved bronze medal down the finishing straight. Elsewhere Luc Legon, walked to a bronze in the men’s 5000m walk with a season’s best of 22:33.18 and so if there was a club medals table Cambridge Harriers would be right up at the top. Daniel Falode back from studying at Harvard University jumped to 6th place in the triple jump and Doyin Aderinto got under 12 seconds for the 100m albeit slightly wind assisted.
In the next age group down the club’s Under 20/Under 17 team had their first proper road trip since before Covid. A coach trip to Lewes on the south coast meant and early Sunday morning start whist the slow pace of officiating meant a late finish too. Despite all this the team scored a great win in their Youth Development League fixture overcoming Medway and Maidstone who had beaten them into second in the first two fixtures and more or less guaranteeing promotion. Individually the windy conditions meant PBs were hard to come by, but this didn’t stop Shaquille Fernandez-Folkes recording one in the 400m (51.92) whilst Angus Vosper PB’d in the 800m not that long after winning the 3000m!
The previous day the Under15 /Under 13 team had been in action in the Kent League at Erith. A sparsity of Under 13’s had hampered our efforts to do well in the first two fixtures and we were languishing in 7th place in Division 1. A great effort by all however turned things round and a third place in the match has moved us up to 5th with one match to go and out of the relegation zone. Particular mention to the Under 15 boys who won their section of the competition overall.
Finally Wednesday 22nd June saw us run the second of our mid week open meetings at Sutcliffe in conjunction with the British Milers Club (BMC). A bumper entry, a beautiful summer’s evening and a great job by the organising team led by David Reader and Barry Ferguson led to a host of great performances. Leading the way was Under 15 Sam Scrase-Field who celebrated getting selected by London to go to the English Schools Championships by lowering his 1500m PB by nearly 8 seconds going from 4.26 to 4:18.23 in a single race.
Tom Ravenscroft and Elijah Olaleye fighting it out in the 400 at the Cambridge H/BMC Open Meeting