Harriers had a great team gathered for the 3rd league match of the season at a breezy Harrow venue, and this was again despite missing some athletes due to exams still taking place.

Also in the final days prior to the meet, we were very unfortunate to lose four of our scoring athletes, that were covering nine events between them. This made for some interesting debuts for some of our athletes in events that they had not competed in previously, but were happy to step up to score some much needed points for the team.

We were battling with Blackheath all the way through the meet for the runners-up position, but had to eventually settle for 3rd on the day, despite an impressive 181.5 point haul.

Apologies in advance for missing any athletes PB performances below, but I do not usually provide the report, and will be glad to see Paul Young back again next month!

With Jacqui Young absent too, we must thank Sarah Palmer for stepping in to look after the men, I am sure she had a great time, and would love to do this again sometime soon…..and as always Louise Stevens looking after the Ladies.

For the ladies, in track events, Heather Rose again stood in covering four events including both relays, and raced 67.10 for 400mH which ranks as a UK Lead Time for V35 for 2019! Jenny Palmer was amazing with 63.9 in 400m. Milly Presland in her first 2000 Steeplechase 7:35.1, backed up by Sam Hart 8:41.7. Heidi Steele smashed her 3000m PB with 10:46.9, and Ella Jeffries in her first ever track races, scoring two third places with 3000m 12:00.9 and then 1500m 5:44.5.

In the ladies field events, Maya Rattray had a great meet with a 4.68m Long Jump, and throwing the heavier shot for the first time for 5.30m. Megan Stevens made her Hammer and Javelin debuts with 7.26m and 9.17m respectively.

On the track for the men, it started as a busy day for Thomas Palmer, standing in to debut his 400mH in 75.2, only to have to follow that up just 10 minutes later with an 800m, and just for good measure running his first 2000m Steeplechase later in the day. Dan Jones ran 22.6 for 200m and Joseph Clarke 24.0, and Luke Smith 56.4 for his first 400m. Joseph Boden ran a strong 1500m in 4:28.9 and Dominik Niciejewski 4:47.5. Dean Williamson in his first 5000m 16:41.2 backed up a fine performance by Ed Mitchell 15:39.1. Victor Steinwand achieved a best time in 2000m Steeplechase with 7:04

In the mens field events Vic Chima raised the bar to 1.60m in the High Jump.

As mentioned before, we do not have all the great performances from Saturday listed above, and many athletes stood up to score points for the team, and as is proven, every single point does count, as we have stayed in Division 1 on points countback in a previous season.

We are good enough, and we deserve to stay in Division 1, but we really do need to aim to fill pretty much all the events at the next two meets. You are all working so hard to make this happen, so let’s all get planning and ready for the next meet at Bracknell on Saturday 13th July. We have a great chance of a top two placing at this meet with the teams that we are against, which will set us up nicely for our home meet in August!