Midsummer Open 4 - 28/7/21

02 August 2021

After 3 successful open evenings the final Midsummer Open was much anticipated and provided our Harriers with a brilliant opportunity to run fast, throw far and jump long. 

The evening kicked off with the 400m hurdles and the sole Harrier taking part was Abi Williams. Williams has made big improvements this year from her pre-season best and was able to produce her 2nd quickest run ever despite the tough conditions. Williams ran 66.8 for 3rd place in a fiercely contested race. 

In the 300m U17W Lily Marchant took an impressive race win on her event debut finishing over a second clear of 2nd place in 45.5 seconds. In the same race U15W Senni Ho also made her 300m debut finishing 4th in 48.1 and U17W Tamsin Hatton ran well to finish 5th in 48.3. In the 1st 300m race of the evening, U15M Oliver Belbeck ran his 3rd fastest time ever to come 3rd in 41.7. U17W Lulu Skurek competed in the 2nd race finishing 5th in 46.1. Moving up in distance to the 400m the quickest Harrier was M50 Michael Gardiner. Gardiner ran a superb race to finish 3rd in 56.3 and move straight into 4th in the UK M50 rankings.Rebecca Hoadley and Jorja Webb competed in the 3rd 400m race. Hoadley took a clear win in 60.2 and U20W Jorja Webb built on her consistent season to finish 4th in 62.5. U17M Sulaiman Ouiles made it two Harrier victories winning race 3 by 3 seconds and beat his PB by 2 seconds running 65.3.

15 Harriers took part in a brilliant series of 800m races. The quickest race of the day, race 1, saw two athletes break the prestigious 2 minute barrier. Taking advantage of a fast paced race SM Harrison Miles ran a SB of 2:11.6 for 13th just ahead of U17M Charlie Boulton who ran a 3second PB of 2:15.6 for 15th. Freddie Coombe led the Harriers home in race 2, running a well to finish 4th in 2:20.7, exactly 1 seconds behind in 5th was fellow U15M Dominic Martin in 2:21.7. U20W Georgia Palmer finished 10th in a SB and was just 0.2 slower than her PB with a time of 2:25.4. U15W Georgia Howell and U17W Freya Howell competed in race 3 coming 5th and 8th in 2:31.1 and 2:35.5 respectively. Having run around 2:36.00 for 800m about 8 times in the last few seasons it was brilliant to see U15W Ellis Woolley have a huge breakthrough race. Woolley took the win in race 4 by over 4 seconds and beat her PB by over 3.5 seconds to finish in a very well deserved 2:31.4, showing perseverance pays off. U15W Eleon Wightman also impressed, taking 2nd place in a 2 second PB of 2:35.3 in only her 2nd race over the distance.  U13M Caleb Green and Tom Wightman ran 2:37.9 and 2:38.0 for 4th and 5th place. This was a big 7 second PB for Green and a brilliant debut for Wightman. Next across the line was multi events specialist U15W Florence Hampton. Hampton was just 0.11 outside her PB in 2:42.7. Finishing in 10th place was U15W Milly Foster, who ran well to finish in 2:52.8. In the final race of the day U15W Kate Mills ran 2:51.3 for 8th and U11W Heidi Woolley took 12th in a PB of 2:58.0, dipping under 3 minutes for the first time.  

U17M William Andrews-Flint produced his 2nd best jump ever to win the triple jump overall by 34cm. Andrews-Flint leaped to 11.27 just 11cm shy of his PB. U15M Oliver Belbeck improved his PB by69cm to finish 7th in 10.14. U17M Billy Buxton competed in both field events jumping to 10.68 for 5th in the triple jump,his 2nd best jump ever, and throwing 32.76 for 2nd in the discus. SM Ben Wade was the discus winner with a best of 39.62 not far off his PB set earlier this season. Belbeck completed his 3rd event of the evening with 2nd place in the U15M event with a best throw of 20.31. In the women’s discus F55 Ruth Bird threw 25.98 for 6th, her 2nd best throw of the season so far. In 7th place was U17W Maia Bliss with a PB of 19.73, U20W Thea Vina was 9th with 17.64, F45 Linsey Hutchin was 10th with 17.30 and U17W Anya Bolton took 11th with a best of 17.03.

Thank you to all the athletes who attended any of the 4 open events and a big thank you to all the officials and volunteers who made the events possible.