The Brewer Memorial Games - 2021

22 September 2021

After a long absence the Brewer Memorial Games returned on the 18th of September in fine style. The event usually held in the May bank holiday weekend was delayed due to the pandemic but instead was able to provide a late season competition opportunity for our athletes. 

No athlete took advantage of this more than 2019 Harrier of the Year Tom Samuel. Samuel has been steadily improving his PB this season and with the end of season looming every jump mattered. This extra jeopardy must have been the perfect motivator for Samuel as he added 45cm to his PB clearing 7m for the first time with an incredible new club U20 record of 7.09. The jump moves Samuel into the top 10 in the UK rankings, a brilliant achievement in a fiercely competitive event.

Samuel obviously provided some inspiration for our Harrier long jumpers with the longest jump of the day. Alfie Wood was just behind Samuel in 2nd with a best of 6.55.  U15B James Keenan added 33cm to his PB with a leap of 4.75. Fellow U15B, Oliver Belbeck jumped 4.40m. Our U15Gs were in amazing form led by Isobel Burfitt with a 12cm PB of 4.32, next was Alana Hazell adding a huge 95cm to her best with 4.26 and Isabel Gardner improved by 45cm to 4.06. Flora Hopcraft was just behind her PB with a best of 3.50. U17W Rosie Wood produced her 2nd best clearance ever with 4.00.

Not to be out done our javelin throwers were also in impressive form with F55 Ruth Bird leading by example. Bird launched the javelin out to 24.50 and in doing so bettered her own club record by almost 2m and solidifying her 5th place UK ranking. Fellow vet Linsey Hutchins, competing in the F45 category, added over a metre her SB with a throw of 21.18 meaning Hutchins also now sits in the top 10 in the UK rankings. U17W Mimi Davis has had a brilliant season so far and ended the season with her longest throw ever, 38.20. U15G Alana Hazell threw a PB of 19.24 and SW Rebecca Hoadley and Cicely Moore threw 35.83 and 17.96 respectively. Sam Northen produced the longest throw of any athlete on the day with a huge 51.11. Alex Merret was just 11cm down on his PB with 27.30. U20M Chris Picken added over 2m to his PB with a massive throw of 46.58. U17M Luca Colombini and Sulaiman Ouiles threw 39.44 and 37.80 with the latter being a PB for Ouiles. The 12th Harrier to compete in the Javelin, U15B Charlie Mason, threw well with a best of 38.72.

Linsey Hutchins had a busy day of competitions, as well as the javelin she also competed in the hammer, discus and shot put producing throws of 20.01, 14.77 and 6.44. U17W Maia Bliss performed amazingly in the discus throwing 21.11 adding 1.38 to her PB. In the SM discus Ben Wade threw 38.0. In the shot put Annabel Moloney led the women's competition with 11.50. Cicely Moore threw well with a best of 7.09. M45 Mike Curneen has been progressing with each competition this season and threw incredibly well to make it an amazing three club records in one day! Curneen added 15cm to his SB with a throw of 9.05 improving the club record by 11cm and being the first M45 at the club to throw over 9metres. 

Our final field eventer in action was Bexley Turbard in the pole vault. Turbard cleared a best of 2.90m making it 8 competitions higher than his pre-season PB. 

Moving over to the track our sprinters came out in force. U17M Alastair Klemz was in incredible shape in the 100m posting the fastest time of the day, 11.4, and a new PB by 0.04. Klemz then matched this in the 200m, running 23.7 to win race 2. Klemz was joined in the 100m by U17M Oliver Spencer who was 3rd in 11.6 and U17M Archie McLean who was 4th in a PB of 11.9. Spencer was also 2nd in the 1st 200m race in 23.9, in the same race M50 Michael Gardiner ran a SB of 25.0 to move into the top 5 in the UK rankings. 100m race 2 boasted another Harrier win this time by Alfie Wood in 11.9. Wood was followed home by U17M Calum Murray in 5th in 12.3 and U15B Oliver Belbeck in 6th in 13.0. 

The third 100m race featured a hat-trick of PBs for our Harriers with U17W Lily Marchant leading the way in 3rd place in a time of 13.0, U15G Elinor Farrier was just behind in 5th in 13.1 and U15G Cara Walsh was 6th in 13.3. Marchant then added to her brilliant run with an =PB over 200m for 2nd in race 4 in 26.9. The race was won by U17M Sulaiman Ouiles in a fantastic new PB of 26.8. In fact the race was completely Harrier dominated with Farrier finishing 3rd in a PB of 27.1, Walsh coming in 4th in 28.8 and U17W Tamsin Hatton coming 5th in 30.7. U15G Annabelle Wigan took victory in 100m race 5 in a time of 13.7, improving her PB by 0.2. U15G Katherine Terrell impressed on her 100m debut taking 2nd in 14.1 and U20W Emily Spencer was 7th in 14.4. Wigan also ran a PB over 200m, knocking 0.4 off her previous best to finish 3rd in 200m race 6 in 28.9. In the same race U17W Lulu Skurek ran 29.4 for 6th. U15B James Keenan delivered a PB in 100m race 6 to take 2nd place in 13.4 and in the same race U15G Sophia Bevan took 6th in 14.8. Bevan also finished 3rd in 200m race 9 in 31.6, just behind U15G Alana Hazell who was 2nd in 31.3. U15G Senni Ho made it four Harrier wins over 100m equalling her PB, 14.2,  in race 7. Just behind was fellow U15Gs Flora Hopcraft and Sophie Osude who both also produced PBs. Hopcraft ran 14.4 for 3rd and Osude ran 14.9 for 4th. Ho then ran 30.2 for 3rd in 200m race 7 and Osude was 4th in 30.8. 100m race 8 saw a huge PB for SW Maxine Stacey. Stacey knocked 1.31 off her PB to cross the line in 15.3 and 3rd place. Also competing over 200m was U17W Ruby Brook and SW Rebecca Hoadley, both athletes took wins with Brook winning race 3 in 26.4 and Hoadley equalling her PB in race 5 in 27.4. 

Brook also ran brilliantly in the 300m finishing just 0.1 slower than her PB in 41.2 for 2nd place. Oliver Belbeck came 3rd in 42.9 and Lulu Skurek was 5th in 46.3. The 2nd 300m race featured Tamsin Hatton and U15G Isobel Burfitt. Both athletes ran strong races just missing their PBs with Hatton running 47.4 and Burfitt running 47.9. In the 400m M50 Michael Gardiner ran a SB by 0.02 running 55.50, meaning he is now ranked in the top 5 in the UK for the 200m and 400m. 

Over the hurdles F60 Jane Horder produced a 80m SB of 13.6 to take the win, cementing her place in 2nd in the UK rankings. U15B James Keenan ran well to take 4th in 15.0.

Rebecca Hoadley ran a phenomenal race in the 800 knocking just under a second off her PB to take 2nd in 2:23.2. Not far behind U15G Georgia Howell impressed, running a new PB of 2:26.2 for 4th. U15G Evie Henderson then took 2nd in race 3 in 2:34.3 just 0.5 ahead of U17W Freya Howell who was 3rd in 2:34.9. U15G Eleon Wightman was 5th in 2:39.6, U17W Molly Dibden was 8th in 2:45.2 and U15G Milly Foster was 9th in 2:46.4

In the longest event of the day, the 3000m, U20W Kaitlyn Sheppard was the first Harrier home in 4th in 10:01.0 and U17W Kiya Dee was 6th in 10:18.3 Fellow U17 Harriet Smith knocked 11seconds off her PB, dipping under 12minutes for the first time to take 9th in 11:56.0. M65 Mike Ede came home in 11th in 12:22.5.