Middle Distance Squad.
With the majority of the squad finished for this season there was a late flurry of activity for some of the younger athletes, keen to record a PB after working hard during the lockdown.
Bottom Year U15 Lara Turner who joined the Harriers in the winter has been in sparking form, having worked tremendously hard during lockdown, and latterly once squad session were resumed she has seen a brilliant improvement this season improving her 800m time by 14 seconds, and her 1500m by nearly 20 seconds. Turner competing over the weekend warmed up for her final 1500m with her first race ever over 300m, winning her race with a terrific time of 46.9. She then competed at the Nuneaton Midland Open meeting the following day, which saw her run an outstanding race to improve her PB to 4:53.37, a time which ranks her 29th in the UK. Turner was delighted with her season finale, and to run her 2nd race in succession under the magical 5:00 barrier.
U15 Lara Turner in sparkling form, UK ranked 21st over 1500m
Bottom year U13 Jemima Davey UK ranked number 3 over 1500m also competed twice over the weekend period, running at Nuneaton in the Friday evening open she ran a solid race but failed to improve her PB due to some very keen pacing in the opening lap. She fared much Better at the Doncaster Run Jump Thrown open on Sunday, where she set a new 800m lifetime best of 2:25.56. Davey has also seem a great improvement in this indifferent season improving her 1500m time by 14 seconds & her 800m by 9 seconds.
Brilliant running from both girls, who will now look forward to whatever the XC season will bring over the winter period.
Sprint Squad.
The final meeting for 11 athletes from the sprint squad was the Midland Open which was held at Nuneaton on Sunday 20th September. Once again they were faced with running into challenging headwinds but put in some great performances.
The performance of the day came from U17, Cole Sinnott, who opted to compete in the 400m when he was unable to enter the 200m. It was to be his only race of the season as he had picked up a back injury earlier in the season that had prevented him from training and competing for a few weeks. He led the race from the start, and won in a fantastic time of 53.31 seconds for a debut over that distance.
U20, Logan Reid, competed in the 100m that included Jamal Chambers of Tipton Harriers who is ranked 10th in the UK in the U23 age group with a personal best of 10.74 seconds. Logan led Chambers out of the blocks and finished 3rd in a time of 11.45 seconds into a minus 2.3 headwind. The race was won by Chambers in a time of 11.20 seconds, with Birchfield’s Muslim Habib, (U20), finishing 2nd in 11.37 seconds.
Elizabeth Reading was the only athlete to achieve an personal best on the day. Running in her preferred distance of 200m, she finished 3rd in a time of 28.03 seconds, just ahead of team mate, Jasmine Anderson, who finished 4th in a time of 28.10 seconds.
The 2020 season has not been an easy one for the squad due to the restrictions imposed by Covid 19, and having to battle headwinds in the majority of their races, but they have all had a positive attitude and worked hard in training. This has been reflected in their performances in which they have represented the club extremely well. They will shortly go into their end of season break prior to starting their winter training later in the autumn.