Chilvers breaks club record on tough day for Harriers

Colchester Harriers slipped to 15th position in the Southern Athletics League division one; in the relegation zone after a tough day in Bracknell, despite a club record from under 17 athlete Kai Chilvers.

Chilvers ran a superb time of 60.1s to take the fourteen year old club record by almost a second and help himself to third place in the A string 400m hurdles race.

He was backed up by a superb double victory for sprinter Akin Y Akinboh in the A string 100m and 200m with times of 11.0s and 22.2s.

For the women, Milly Presland continued her good form with a super B string victory in the 800m followed by an even more impressive A string 1500m steeplechase win just a few hours later. Milly was duly backed up by Stacey Eyers who achieved second place in the A string 800m as well as fourth place in a very fast 400m.

With the field athletes determined not to be outdone, Megan Larkins picked up more points than anybody else while competing in an incredible four events. If this wasn’t enough, Megan managed personal bests in both the shot put and javelin competitions, victory in the A string hammer and three second place finishes in the shot, javelin and discus.

Continuing in the field but on the men’s side, Billy Praim-Singh and James Hamblin swept aside competition across nearly all throwing events. Billy won the A string shot put with his best performance being measured at 12.66m as well as the B string hammer with a throw of 56.08m. He finished in second place in the discus with a throw of 35.6m. Not to be outdone, James contributed with first in the B string shot put and discus as well as victory in the A string hammer where he threw 58.5m. James was named man of the match for this fine throw. In the javelin, Paul Cooper threw well to achieve victory in the B string with a throw of 46.20m while Sam Higgins edged ahead of his teammate to take second place in the A string with a throw of 46.52m, agonisingly  missing out on first place by just 1cm.

Away from the field, there was a further victory for the Harriers with Ermeas Afewerki in the B string 800m, followed by a second place finish for Victor Steinwand in his first ever 3000m steeplechase.

It was a day for the Harriers to pull together with key athletes again missing but the team in action did themselves proud. Many athletes competed in events for the first time to ensure that the team achieved as many points as possible. Chanel Mba jumped 4.12m in her first ever long jump while Daisy Hilson came second in the B string 1500m steeplechase in her first race over the distance. Hannah James ran 12.5s in the 100m at her first SAL match since injury; Ella Neale ran 81.6s in her fist ever 400m hurdles race while Alexandra Hennessy ran 20:54.6s in her first ever SAL 5000 metres race.

There were also personal bests in various events with Josephine Larkins throwing the hammer 41.45m, Megan Stevens with her throw of 9.27m in the javelin and Simon Morgan with a 1.95m clearance in the Pole Vault.

For the third time in the last four years the club moves on to the final fixture of the season on Saturday 17th August, at the Garrison Stadium knowing that only victory with a good points haul will give them any chance of survival in the top flight of the SAL. The Harriers were promoted to division one in 2012 and finished in the top three in 2014.

The match score on Saturday was 1. Southampton AC 216 pts, 2. Bracknell AC 208 pts, 3. Nene Valley Harriers 175 pts and 4. Colchester Harriers AC 165 pts.

Images from the match courtesy of John Hyland.