A great start to the new season today at the Middx County relays in Minet Park as Harrow athletes came away with gold and silver team titles in the U13 girls and bronze in the boys U13! Full results to follow and some photos below.
Sunday saw Harrow athletes taking the opportunity to have a run around some famous London landmarks in the 2023 “Big Half”. First home from Harrow was Jack Whitebury in a PB timing of 72:41 with Kevin Fini (now based in Bromley) running a strong 75:47. Emily Antcliffe continued her recent great form with a 1:40:40 clocking – Emily also recently completed a full Ironman triathlon in 11hours 45 minutes with her final marathon stage run in 3:58:57! Other notable performances include Sarah Saunders just getting under the 2 hour barrier – well done all 🙂
Two weeks earlier another Harrow athlete got the England call up as Jonathan Collier was part of a team representing the home countries at the Antrim Coast Race weekend in Ireland! A solid run from Jonathan saw him finish 20th and third English scorer (some reports suggest 2nd?) with a time of 65:52!
The Club hosted the final vets league fixture for this season at the Bannister stadium – full results now available plus a few (grainy) photos from the night!
Another NAL fixture and another dousing all round – the weather in Birmingham was awful but the team spirit was high as we tried to challenge TVH who were at the other premier fixture and maintained their status to clinch the league title with Harrow finishing second! Tony’s match report below:
‘Congratulations on another brilliant team performance in the final NAL at a soggy Commonwealth Games stadium yesterday. We won the fixture by a massive 134 points to seal second spot in the Premiership, one place higher than last year. The League table shows how hard we pressed defending champions TVH, while finishing more than 300 match points clear of third placed Woodford.
The men won by 82 points, with 15 individual winners. Miguel (hurdles), Andrew (1500), Terry (S/C), and Conor (javelin) all won A string events for the second time this summer, while Divine took the high jump, and the sprint relay squad were comfortable winners. David Aryeetey won both B string hurdles and we all hope that his plan for early retirement is postponed indefinitely! There were also B string wins for Destiny (100), Connor (400), John (3k), Tayo (HJ), Kane (shot), Zac (discus) and Callum (javelin).
The 4 x 400 relay squad (Tom, Michael, Connor and Alex) sliced almost two seconds off the Club record with 3.11.75!
The women won by 48 points, with seven individual winners. Adelaide completed a clean sweep of triple jump victories, with Amelia taking the B string. There were also B string victories for Rebecca (400, unbeaten this season), Robyn (800), Emma (discus) and Emily (javelin).
The 4 x 400 team of Rebecca, Dijana, Amy and Poppy were also victorious in a very tight finish.
Thanks to our officials (who scored maximum points), coaches, team managers and, most of all, a great team of athletes’.
Chris Finill, Harrows legendary marathon man, has completed his John O’Groats to Lands End epic run after 43 days and totaling up 999.84 miles on the road! Julia, his trusted road manager, managed a mere 4,600 miles in the support car as she kept up a steady supply of half tins of baked beans whilst on the road 😉 Just like the old school relay days, I’m told there were also copious quantities of tea and record setting amounts of cake consumed along the way. Chris’s feet are intact and he says that he ran about 70% of the distance in one pair of trainers – so much for those elite athletes changing their sponsors shoes every 50 – 100 miles! If your visiting Keswick in the Lake District for your summer holidays (I am!) he also recommends the running shop with the landmark model gorilla outside as being particularly good value 🙂
Chris ran into a headwind for most of the challenging ‘Pheidippidien‘ route but was pleased that the Scottish midges were mostly absent although the wet weather in Peak District and Yorkshire Dales was tough. Chris enjoyed some good running buddies along the way including spells with Geoff Wightman (Jakes dad), Nick Rowe (Harrow County GS), Mike Peace (Ever Present), Steve Bland (Harrow) and Marcus Brown (L. Heathside). For his next ultra challenges, Chris is thinking about the Jos Naylor round (a fell racing challenge) and possibly another 24 hour track race – but we’re hoping Julia may talk some sense into him on that last one! Although Chris & Julia are now enjoying a well earned rest at home, its not too late to sponsor their charity endeavors via this link on Givewheel.