Following a pause in news reports following the global cyber incident last month, below is a selection of recent news events sent to me during that time and congratulations to all the athletes concerned!
Nia Wedderburn-Goodison booked her place in the final of the World U20 championships held in Peru last week. Team captain Nia clocked 11.39 to qualify joint fastest. Nia placed an agonising 4t in the final in a time of 11.46.
At the other end of the age scale super vet Mark Cursons was in Sweden last month for the World Masters event where he also finished 4th in the final of the 5,000m with 17:16.
Another masters athlete still going strong was Chris Finill who won the British Masters M65 2Km steeplechase title at Derby in late July with 8.08!
Finally some very late results from the last few months which included the following very notable performances –
Sunday saw Harrow athletes travel to Woodford for round 2 of the league where the weather certainly tried to play its part on the proceedings! Harrow finished second on the day to a resurgent TVH and there’s a good report of the match on the NAL website here with team manager Tony Bush’s team report below.
Harrow’s NAL team finished second in the Woodford NAL on Sunday 7 July to set up a mouth-watering finale with TVH at Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games Stadium on Saturday 3 August. Eleven withdrawals (injury, illness, car accident, flight delay) in the last week ravaged the team and made it impossible to repeat the victory at Eton.
The men’s team won at Woodford by 27 points from TVH, headed by fantastic field event results. Victories by Conor (javelin PB, 66.57), Tayo (B HJ), Joe (B PV), Chuko (B TJ), Zac (B shot), and Kane (B discus) were backed up by great results elsewhere. There were superb track results also, headed by Terry’s 2000m S/C win with a PB of 5.56.63.. There were also B string wins for Michael (400) and John (3k).
The women’s team was hit hard by the withdrawals but still finished second on the day. Joy won the 200 with an impressive legal PB of 23.46, while Marli took the sprint hurdles with a fast 13.45. Joy and Marli later teamed up with Hilary and Susan to set a new Club record of 45.63 for the sprint relay, which is also the fastest Club time in the UK this year. There were also B string wins for Ioana in the 400 and Suzie in the 800. The mixed relay team of Alex, Poppy, Connor and Rachel, who is in the Irish 4 x 400 team for Paris, set a new Club record of 3.25.60.
Team manager Tony Bush reports below on the opening NAL fixture for 2024 which took place on Saturday at the Eton (TVAC) stadium and resulted with a momentous win for Harrow!
Hello everyone and congratulations on Harrow’s first ever National Premiership victory.
There were so many great performances: Angus Lockhart won the shot with a PB, while Zac Davies won the B string. Owen Heard won the pole vault with his best ever NAL vault of 5.30 while Franco Perinotti took the B on his Club debut. Terry Fawden arrived with just a few minutes to spare, and cruised to victory in the S/C. Damian Nevins flew in from Stockholm to win the B with a PB. There were also B string victories (100 and 200) for Harry Taylor on debut, John Craig (5000), Tayo Andrews (HJ), and Daniel Igbokwet (TJ), on debut.
Marli Jessop (on debut) and Mia McIntosh produced a classy double victory in the sprint hurdles, while there were also A string victories for Shiloh Wright-Taipow (100) and Poppy Malik (400). B string wins for Susannah LeCoutre (800), Rebekah Osborne (1500), Ade Omitowoju (LJ), Amelia Gray (TJ), and Zoe Price (hammer), on debut.
Last weekend saw a number of great early season results for Harrow athletes competing in Manchester’s Sport City for their universities and colleges. Harrow won both male and female in the 400m through Alex Cooper and Poppy Malik with Pole Vault wins also for Owen Heard and Jade Spencer-Smith! Zac Davies also won his shot putt competition with a 16.57 PB and took silver in the Discus with another PB at 48.40m. Zoe Price sent the Hammer out to 58.39 to take the gold medal!
400m – 1st Alex Cooper 47.21s
400m – 1st Poppy Malik 52.94s
800m – 6th S3 Jaran Singh 1:53.63
1500m – 8th H2 Chris Hudson – 4:01.67
3K S/C – 3rd Thomas Dugre 9:07.20
100mH – 2nd Marli Jessop 13.81s
Triple Jump – 7th Julie-Anne Boachie 11.60m
Pole Vault – 1st Owen Heard 5.23m
Pole Vault – 1st Jade Spencer-Smith 4.24m
Shot Putt – 1st Zac Davies 16.57m PB
Shot Putt – 4th Kane Aubrey 15.60m
Shot Putt – 2nd Sinead Du Toit 14.33m
Shot Putt – 4th Makayla Joseph 13.76m
Discus Throw – 2nd Zac Davies 48.40m PB
Discus Throw – 2nd Taia Tunstall 50.50m
Discus Throw – 4th Sinead Du Toit 46.15m
Hammer Throw – 3rd Owen Merrett 58.33m
Hammer Throw – 1st Zoe Price 58.39m
Javelin Throw – 7th Lucy Odell 42.28m
Sofia Latham had a recent major breakthrough at the Cardiff 5K running a barnstorming 16:08 on the roads!
At the recent Middlesex YAL at Finsbury Park, the stand out performances from our young athletes included the following –
100m W – 1st Havika Kyere-Aidoo 13.14s
800m – 1st Luca Russo 2:18.0
800m – 2nd Katie Dalton 2:22.4
Long Jump – 1st Daniel Markham-Lee 5.30m
Similarly for the YDL youngsters competing at Eton a day later some great event wins for these athletes as the team finished second –
1500m – 1st Amae Van Zyl 4:57.3
Long Jump – 1st Daniel Emegbor 6.36m
Triple Jump – 1st Michelle Yalekhue 12.10m
Discus Throw – 1st Emile Majed 35.04m
Discus Throw – 1st Alan Thomas 34.69m
Finally, this week at the Hillingdon and Harrow Brough school sports championships another set of impressive results from Harrow’s junior athletes:
