Fifth finish Harriers’ youngsters perform well at national finals
CHELTENHAM Harriers finished fifth in the Lower Youth Development League national final in Manchester, achieving three A string victories, three B string victories and 28 podium finishes, plus two club records.
Under-15 boys: The A string wins all came from the Under-15 boys team as Oliver Belbeck took the 80m hurdles, Dominic Martin won the 1500m and Charlie Mason came out on top in the javelin. Belbeck produced first sub-12 second performance, finishing in 11.71, moving him to ninth in the UK rankings. Belbeck also jumped to a pole vault PB of 2.50 for second place and finished fourth in the A 300m in 38.92. Martin won the 1500m in 4:20.52, his second quickest time and Mason won the javelin with his third-best throw ever, 48.88, adding to his victory with third in the A shot put and hammer with 10.19 and 28.55, the latter being a PB. Elsewhere, Daniel Slater came second in the B javelin with 41.14, was fourth in the B discus with a PB of 22.73 and fifth in the A hammer with a PB of 12.56. James Pound was second in the B pole vault with 2.10 and sixth in the B 800m in 2:45.30 and Fred Parry threw a discus PB 0f 28.94 for third A a hammer PB of 25.05 for fourth B and was third B in the shot put with 8.92. Freddie Coombe was third in the B 300m in 40.65 and sixth in the A 800m in 2:15.59 while there were PBS for Robin Nishimura, Harry Knight and Emeka Nkeme in the 200m, 1500m and 80m hurdles in times of 28.27, 5:14.48 and 15.85 that saw all three finish seventh B. Benjamin Parker was sixth B in the 100m in 13.43 while Luke Johnson jumped 1.50 for fifth A in the high jump and 4.33 for seventh A in the long jump, while Ethan Woodward cleared a best of 1.40 for fifth B and 3.88 for seventh B. Under-15 girls: The hammer throwers impressed with Skyla Turbard and Zoe Arrenberg winning second A and first B in PBS of 30.25 and 24.79. Turbard is now in the top 30 in the UK rankings. English Schools finalist Elinor Farrier competed over the 100m and 200m running 13.08 for sixth A in the 100m and second A in the 200m in 26.78. In the B 100m Izzy Cook was seventh in 13.75 and in the B 200m Senni Ho was seventh in 29.71. The 300m saw Georgia Howell take fifth A in 43.94 and Rosie Reynolds finish seventh B in 48.46. Reynolds also competed in the discus throwing 18.07 for sixth A. Isla Pain knocked 0.64 seconds off her 75m hurdles PB with 12.62 for fourth A and Ivayla Atanasova was fourth B in 13.10. Pain also came third in the A high jump with a best of 1.50. Bluebell Heath-smith and Amelie Paul competed in the 800m and Maddie Thomson and Harriet Smith took on the 1500m. Heath-smith and Paul finished sixth A and seventh B in 2:32.43 and 2:47.19. Heath-smith then made an impressive pole vault debut with a best of 2.20 for fourth A and Paul threw 6.91 for sixth B in the javelin. Thomson lowered her 1500m PB down to 4:48.15 to finish second in the A 1500m while Smith was fifth B in 5:30.27. Esme Rolfe made the B high jump podium with a best of 1.35 and threw a shot PB of 7.53 for sixth A, while Charlotte Smith was seventh A in the long jump with 4.04 and sixth B in the discus with 14.91. Josie Steer equalled Smith’s long jump performance for seventh B. Jess Asquith threw a best of 6.68 in the B shot put to take sixth and Kate Mills throw of 16.18 in the javelin earned her seventh A.
Under-13 boys: Hurdler Aidan John took a further 0.4 seconds off his PB finishing in 9.90, the first Under-13 Harrier to run below 10 seconds for the distance and puts him fifth in the UK rankings and earned him first B comfortably. He was fifth in the A 75m hurdles with 13.57 and seventh in the A shot put with 4.84. Caleb Green had two PBS and two A string podium finishes. He lowered his 800m PB to 2:22.60 for second A, finished third A in the long jump with 4.67 and ran a 75m PB of 10.13 for fifth A, also under the previous club record. Jack Johnson also had two PBS and two podium finishes, the PBS in the 150m with 19.79 for fourth A and long jump where he produced a best of 4.53 for second B. Johnson was also second B in the 800m in a time of 2:24.73. Samuel Jeenes produced a 150m PB of 21.85 for sixth B, jumped 1.20 in the high jump for sixth B and threw the javelin out to 17.00 for seventh A and Bertie Travis was just short of his PB in the 1200m running 4:19.02 for sixth B, his second best time ever, he jumped 1.25 in the high jump for fourth A and threw a javelin best of 15.93 for sixth B. Patrick Paul took second in the A 1200m running 3:46.33 and there were double PBS for Zac Litman, 17.06 in the 75m hurdles and 4.81 in the shot put, to finish seventh B in both. Under-13 girls: The girls team produced five podium finishes with Olivia Avery achieving the highest finish, second A as she smashed her 1200m PB by almost four seconds, her time of 4:01.98 putting her into the top 40 in the UK. Amber Tandy took 0.2 off her 75m best to finish third A in 10.40, and in the B race Lottie Cook was fifth in a PB of 10.87. Megan Amey picked up third A in the long jump with 4.53, 3cm shy of her PB, ran a 70m hurdles PB of 12.33 for fourth A and finished fourth A in the high jump with 1.35. Lexie Wiggett was third B in the high jump with 1.30, fourth B in the long jump with 3.77 and threw 14.60 in the javelin for sixth A and Kitty Buckland lowered her 150m PB to 21.85 for seventh in the A race, while Zara Collins ran 22.20 for seventh B. Buckland was also sixth in the B 70m hurdles in 13.31 and Collins sixth A in the shot put with 7.04. Under-13 girls 800m club record holder Evie Avery ran 2:29.04, for fourth A, was sixth B in the shot put with 5.45 and javelin with 8.75. Eleanor Thomson and Scarlett Eagland ran the B 800 and 1200 respectively. Thomson was third with 2:39.91 and Eagland was fourth in 4:17.55.
Relays: The Under-15 boys finished seventh in the 4x100m in 53.06 and in the 4x300m took a five seconds off the club record for fourth in 2:44.58. The Under-15 girls took sixth in the 4x100m and seventh in the 4x300m in 53.52 and 3:09.97, while The Under-13 girls and boys both finished fifth in the 4x100m, the boys running 55.98 and the girls 55.94.