Midsummer Open 4

03 August 2022

Plenty of Harriers took advantage of the last fixture on home soil this season. The fourth and final Midsummer Open of the year brought a successful conclusion to the string of fixtures made possible by a fantastic group of volunteers and officials. 

U15 Leo Soakell got the evening going with a win in race 1 of the 300m in a PB of 44.64. U17 Beatrice Morley also ran a PB in race 2, finishing 2nd in 46.50. Four Harriers contested the 400m with the fastest being M50 athlete Michael Gardiner who edged out his younger teammate, U20 Alastair Klemz, with a time of 56.87 for 3rd in the race 2. Klemz ran well to finish in a PB of 58.83 for 4th. In race 3 U20 Philip Hunt came 5th in a PB of 61.88. Gareth Picken continued building back his fitness, finishing in 73.16. U17 Lydia Baldwin impressed over the 300m hurdles running a PB of 47.27.

The final Midsummer Open presented the perfect opportunity for athletes to race over the rarely run mile distance, meaning plenty of PBs were up for grabs and there was a superb club record run. U15 Sam Wilson was the quickest Harrier of the evening finishing 4th in race 1 in a PB of 4:48.19. U20 Kiya Dee was the fastest female overall, running fractionally over 5 minutes with a PB of 5:00.27 for 7th in race 1. U17 Bexley Turbard was 9th in race 1 just over his PB in 5:06.72. U15 Tom Wightman was the only Harrier in race 2, Wightman ran well to finish 7th in a PB of 5:14.75. It was U15 Maddie Thomson who impressed in the 3rd race, battling for the lead earned her not only a PB but also her second club record! Thomson ran a time of 5:20.38 for 2nd in the race and took 0.22 off the previous record set back in 2005 the performance ranks her 12th in the UK rankings. U13 Oliver Wilson was 10th in a PB of 5:48.57 and U17 Eleon Wightman was 11th in 5:50.23. In race 4 U13 Eleanor Thomson was 7th in a PB of 6:06.44. Gareth Picken added a mile SB to his 400m time finishing in 5:33.91.  

On the field athletes competed in the triple jump, shot put and javelin. In the triple jump the only Harrier competitor was U17 Flora Hopcraft who jumped a best of 9.10. Annabel Moloney led the way in the shot put with yet another throw over the 12 metre mark. Moloney's best of the day was 12.28. U17 Alana Hazel enjoyed a successful evening with a best of 10.53 in the shot and 18.71 in the javelin and fellow U17 Florence Hampton threw a PB of 10.20 in the shot and 23.00 in the javelin. F45 Linsey Hutchins threw 6.34 in the shot and 19.56 in the javelin while F55 Ruth Bird threw 9.33 and 21.22 respectively. Fellow senior athlete Cicely Moore was just shy of 20 metres with a burst of 19.92 in the javelin. U13s Zara Collins and Megan Amey took part in the shot put throwing 6.76 and 6.56, the latter being a PB for Amey. There was also a PB for U13 Samuel Jeenes with a best of 7.13. Arguably the highlight of the whole evening was a phenomenal throw in the javelin by U15 Charlie Mason. The Harrier added almost 2 metres to his previous PB throwing 49.20, the performance moves Mason up to 2nd in the UK rankings. U15 Charlotte Smith and U13 Caleb Green also threw brilliant PBs of 18.13 and 22.97.