Night of 800s Norwich
A small group of youngsters and one senior took the trip to Norwich on a cool and windy Friday evening to take part in the Athletics Norwich series of open meetings.
First up was Maisy Wood running in her first ever track race for the club she showed her tenacity going out with the leaders in a fast pace she held her form well to finish in an excellent time of 2.42, Maisy is a first year under 15 so we hope to see a lot more from her in the future.
Then we had two Harriers in the same race, U13 Henry Rutland, this was Henry’s first race on a track for the club, and U17 Emily Swan looking for the chance to have a first run out for this year. The mixed races produced some surprising results with the winner of this race being 10 seconds quicker than the second-place finisher. Henry and Emily ran good solid races finishing fast to clock 2.39.9 and 2.44.4 respectively.
First year U15 Harrison Leek took the lead from the gun, looking relaxed he went through the bell in 67 but with the thought of a new PB he pushed on, closely followed by an U17 girl, Harrison never looked in trouble crossing the line in new PB of 2.24.5.
Next up was Lyla Belshaw the diminutive figure racing against several senior women and men found herself boxed in, Lyla saw the other side of 800m running which can be quite physical, U13 Lyla worked her way out of trouble passing through the 400 in 68 she crossed the line in 5th with a new club record of 2.26.8.
Last up for the Harriers was Paul Preston, Paul had taken the journey to Norwich in the knowledge that he’d had just 3 weeks to prepare after suffering a slight hamstring pull which left him out of several key sessions. Paul set out a good race plan passing through the 400 within a second of his target time he finished strong on tired legs but happy with his time of 2.23.5.
Considering that all these athletes haven’t trained on a track since the start of March and have been training on rugby pitches and parkland their performances were outstanding, several are making the journey to Norwich to compete in the final open of the year on Saturday 26th where they will be competing over the 1500 let’s hope the weather holds out for them.