Nene Valley Harriers’ youngsters did the club proud yet again with an impressive victory in their Eastern Young Athletes League match at Peterborough Athletics Arena.
The Harriers squad were consistent across the age groups with the under-13 and under-15 boys winning their categories while the under-17 boys and all three girls teams finished as runners-up in the six team contest.
The Harrison boys had a field day in the throws with under 15 George Harrison winning the hammer with a throw of 29.28m as well as securing first place in the B javelin and discus.
The A contests were both won by Charlie Brook.
Older sibling Kai Harrison won the under-17 discus and shot, throwing the discus 39.80m, almost double the distance of any competitors.
Callum Robertson scored maximum points in the B discus and shot while Luke Taylor hurled the javelin a colossal 49.04m.
The Brill family also had a good day with Hugo winning the under-13 800m in 2.26.5mins while his sister Flo won the under-15 girls 1,500m with a 4.57.1mins clocking.
There were also under-15 firsts for pole vaulter Millie Weller, shot putter Elizabeth Moorhouse and Danielle Pusey with a hammer throw of 23.24m.
Under-17 Amber Park did the double winning both the 300 and 800m. Ellie Piccaver won the B 800m in 2.28.7mins, just three seconds down on Park’s time. Jasmine Allen was first in the under-17 long jump while Katie Marsh won the under-13 long jump. Lottie Hemmings also scored full points with a win in the B under 13 1500m.
There was no shortage of victories on the track for the boys. William Hughes won the under-17 200m with a 22.5secs clocking just three tenths of a second ahead of B winner Ronan Rawlings.
Rawlings also won the 100m in a speedy 11.1secs.
Joe Prince and Matt Dowling finished first in the B middle distance races.
Freddie Fraser won the under-15 80m hurdles in a time of 11.9secs and Matt Colman bagged full points in the B 800m.
Donovan Capes proved he’s more than just a thrower with his first place in the B under-13 long jump to add to his shot and discus wins. Theo Briston won the A long jump.
Joseph Reindel was another athlete to double up, clocking 5.15.4mins for his 1,500m victory, which he followed up with first in the B long jump.
There were B wins for 100m sprinter Natalie Bailey and middle distance men Freddie House and Joshua Smith too.
With two fixtures to go Nene Valley are sitting pretty in third place out of 27 clubs with the top six contesting the September finals.
- Phillipa Taylor is determined to prove herself as the fastest 50-year-old in the business.
The flying Nene Valley Harrier is currently unbeaten since celebrating her birthday two weeks ago and added the Black Country half Marathon to her role of honour after winning the previous week’s Ramsey 10k.
Even in an era when veteran long distance runners often beat their younger opponents, it is probably unprecedented for someone entering their sixth decade to finish ahead of the whole field as often as it looks like Taylor will do.
With a first and a second place finish to her name in the last two years, Taylor was awarded the honour of wearing ‘number one’ on her vest.
Taylor lived up to her billing and was in a class of her own on the course which runs from the centre of Wolverhampton to Birmingham city centre via canal towpaths.
Though the winning time of 1.27.33hrs was slow by Taylor’s high standards she was far too quick for the opposition, winning by four minutes.
Her enjoyment of the event was clear when saying: “The race makes a great change from usual half marathons.
“We run from the centre of Wolverhampton to the centre of Birmingham, but it’s all along canal paths, over bridges and through tunnels, trying to avoid geese at various places.
“It’s the second time I’ve won the race and, although I did it in a relatively slow time for me, I loved it and hope to do it again next year.”
- Two Nene Valley Harriers took part in the World Championship qualifiers at Birmingham over the weekend.
Martin Tinkler finished eighth in the shot with a putt of 14.28m while Ashley Sandall failed to qualify from his 800m heat after clocking 1.54.12mins.
