Harriers excel in busy Easter weekend

A small group of our juniors were in action at two medal meetings over the Easter weekend and delivered some excellent performances.

On Saturday four of the squad travelled over to the Wakefield Spring Open where they were amongst 420 athletes in a high class day of competition. Tom Kramer achieved a huge PB of 8.47 in his shot for fifth place and followed up with a silver medal winning jump of 4.95 in the long jump. A good afternoon's work was complete with an outdoor PB of 27.09 in the 200m. Our picture gallery above shows all of our athletes in action (thanks to Wakefield A.C's official photographer for these images)

Naomi Richardson produced three consistently good performances, achieving 3.89 in the long jump, a very good 14.6 in her 100m and 2.59 in the 800m.

Charlotte Bowker improved on her promising 200m debut at Wigan with a new PB of 29.2 for 3rd in her heat. This came after another PB of 5.77 in her shot and a distance of 3.62 in the long jump.

Georgina McGrath made a welcome return to competitive action and enjoyed a very good afternoon, throwing 5.95 in the shot, producing a PB of 3.66 in the long jump and running a creditable 16.0 in the 100 despite feeling some discomfort in her ankle.

On Easter Monday the action moved onto Trafford, where in sunny and warm conditions there were more very good performances. Tom improved his PB again in the 200m, winning his heat in a time of 26.4. He was then in the medals again in the long jump with another leap of 4.95 and finished off with another 8m + throw in the shot.

Charlotte enjoyed a highly promising debut in the high jump, only bowing out of the competition at 1.35. It was PBs all round as she improved on Saturday's efforts in both the 200m and shot putt with 28.6 and 5.88 respectively.

Tom and Charlotte were joined in the shot by Beth Halliday who, after a long absence from competition, picked up the thread very well and delivered a PB of 6.02

Well done to all our athletes and let's see them joined by a few more Harriers at the next Trafford meeting on May Day Bank Holiday Monday

Harriers trio in warm-up action at Wigan

Tom Kramer, Naomi Richardson and Charlotte Bowker were all in actio at the Wigan Harriers Spring Warm-up Meeting at Robin Park last Sunday. All performed well considerign they had been in action at Sportcity the day before and put a lot into those events.

Tom recorded a distance of 4.74 for 4th in the long jump and ran creditable races in his 100 and 200 heats, with times of 13.6 and 27.1 respectively.

Naomi continued her good form in the long jump with a distance of 3.91 and knocked 2 seconds off her PB in the 800m with a time of 2.56. She also ran a solid race in her 100m heat in 15.0

Charlotte Bowker recorded distances of 3.64 in the long jump and 5.48 in the shot before trying a new event on the track in the 200m. This proved a good choice as she won her heat impressively in a time of 30.4 secs.

Tom and Charlotte will be in Yorkshire this weekend for ther Rotherham Harriers Spring Open, more news of which will be published on the blog next week

Sophie and Lewis excel in Tom Pink Relays

Sophie and Lewis Thirsk represented Greater Manchester in the regional Tom Pink Relays event at Sportcity last Sunday and did themselves proud.

Lewis competed in 1000m relay for U11 Boys in which they had to beat Paula Radcliffe's record of 2 minutes and 49.0 seconds. Each team member had to run 4 times at distances of 50m. They completed it in a time of 2 minutes and 45.2 seconds, finished 3rd overall and came home with a medal. Lewis's last event was the over/under relay which they had to go over hurdles and through a tunnel made out of mats, they also came 3rd and he won his second medal.

Sophie competed in the 3 x 2.5 Lap (500m) relay for under 13s, where she ran a briliant leg to build up a good 60m lead on fellow competitors. The team eventually came in 3rd overall with a time of 4 minutes and 47.7 seconds enabling Sophie to come home with her first medal. Sophie also competed in a new event for her of the 'highland steps' and came 8th overall, then recorded finished a distance of 1.91 for the standing long jump.

Well done to Sophie and Lewis for representing themselves, Harriers and Greater Manchester with distinction.

Big squad, big performances at Sportcity

A big squad of junior Harriers wwere in action on a busy day of indoor athletics at the Sale Open Junior Indoor meeting at Sportcity last Saturday. There were many highlights throughout the day, but here are just a few:
Niamh Nugent made her debut at just 8 years old and had a great day, winning her 600m heat, the standing triple jump and coming second in the soft javelin.
Jake Walker won his U11 boys 200m heat in the fastest time of the day, whilst Dante Dawes did the same in the U11 Boys 60m
Lucy Moore ran a great race in the U13 Girls 600m, finishing 2nd in a time of 2.01 and produced a PB of 3m16 in her long jump
Sophie Thirsk was top of our trio of U15 girls long jumpers with an excellent PB of 4m21 taking her into 3rd place. Naomi Richardson also produced a PB in this event of 3m97.
Tom Kramer rounded off the day's action by winning the U15 Boys long jump with a leap of 5m09 and blasted round the 200m track to record a PB of 26.2.
Another debutant, Lance Leighton performed very well in all his three events, including a good first effort of 10.4 in the 60m heats
A big shout out also to Lewis Thirsk, James Kramer, Daniel Moore, Ellis Thompson, Jenny Sherwin, Charlotte Bowker and Beth Greenwood, all of whom performed very well in their events and showed great promise for the outdoor season ahead.