This season seems to be flying by! It doesn’t seem that long since things were starting off again after months of lockdown, but already we’ve had the 4th meeting of the NEGP. Once again, Monkton Stadium, Jarrow, played host as athletes from all across the region gathered for an evening of tough competition. Our Junior section were well represented again; here’s how things went…..
200m
Four of our Juniors were in the 200m, the first of them being U13 all-rounder, Lottie Graves. We’ve come to expect a strong performance from Lottie and this was no exception – another AAA Grade 3 time of 29.3s to take 2nd place; only just beaten by an U15 athlete. As you probably realise by now we have mixed heats at the NEGP events; hence in heat four we found U17, Krista Bissett-Brown up against U13, Hugo Douglas-Reeves. Hardly fair you might think, but each heat is graded on previous times so in this heat, for example there was just over a second between 1st and 6th place. For Krista this was only her second 200m this season, but she produced another excellent performance finishing in 3rd place with a new PB of 27.43s. Hugo, the youngest in the heat, understandably finished 6th, but 1st for the U13 boys with an excellent time of 28.64s, just outside his PB. In Heat 8 we had James Stewart competing at his first NEGP for Darlington Harriers. He’s an U17 athlete but tonight was down as an U20; either way he ran a great 200m finishing 3rd in his heat with a time of 24.7s. Well done to our four sprinters, a great effort from all.
800m
We had 5 of our Juniors take on the 800m tonight, from U13 up to U20. The youngest of them, Lucy Oliver, stepped up in Heat 1. She’s only recently started competing for DHAC but already she’s showing real promise. Lucy ran tonight’s race with real determination, finishing in 3rd place with a new PB of 2:47.30. After being a little unwell the day before, U17 Olivia Douglas-Reeves should probably have given tonight a miss. But she’s a determined young lady and wanted to give it her best shot! I’m sure she was pleased that she did; she crossed the line with a new PB of 2:50.42, finishing in 6th place. Next up was U15, Savannah Tarn in Heat 4. This was only her second 800m of the season and she put in an tremendous performance. She crossed the line in 5th place in her heat, with a new PB of 2:33.74. Savannah’s U15 team mate, Zara Jones was next in Heat 5. Zara did her usual thing in beating older athletes, male athletes, eventually finishing in 2nd place (1st female) in a time of 2:24.94; another PB from our DHAC athletes! In the final Heat of the evening, U20 Adam Russell was in action. This was his first 800m this season and he put in his usual strong performance. No PB this time but a great effort against some tough competition. He crossed the line in 7th place in 2:03.32. Well done to our 800m runners; very impressive!
3000m
Upping the distance a bit, we move onto the 3k with two of our juniors up for the challenge. In the first Heat, U17, Mia Wetherill ran her second track 3k of the season. Her first was actually in the Senior League back in May where she ran what was then new PB, and was still her best time before this evening’s race. However, after a magnificent run she improved that time by over 6 seconds with a brilliant 11:01.39 (AAA Grade 4) to take 4th place. Next up was U15, Harry Lyons in Heat 2. He was up against the usual selection of Senior/U17/U15 athletes so he had some tough competition to contend with. But he ran with great maturity and finished as the fastest U15 on the night in 9th place, crossing the line in 9:44.15 (AAA Grade 4.) Top running from both!
Shot Put
Onto the field events we had U13, Hugo Douglas-Reeves and U15, Thomas Hill in action. All rounder, Hugo performed to his usual high standard, adding another 4cm onto his PB with a new best of 7.34m (AAA Grade 4), for his second victory of the evening. Thomas put in great round of throws; no PB tonight but a best of 5.69m was enough to take 2nd place MU15. Well done to both!
Long Jump
Always a popular event with a large field of 22 athletes tonight, including four from DHAC. Ladies first, and Krista Bissett-Brown took 1st place in the FU17 age group with some impressive jumping and a best of 4.79m. Another 1st place for DHAC came from U13, Lottie Graves; in fact she beat the U13 boys as well with an excellent 4.49m (AAA Grade 2) which was a new PB. James Stewart was back with his first officially recorded long jump, and what a great effort; his best this evening was 4.8m which bagged him 2nd place in the MU20’s. And finally, Thomas Hill put in some great jumps to take 3rd place in the MU15’s, with a best of 4.18m. Excellent jumping from our fabulous four, well done!
Triple Jump
Finally, U15, Ashton Harrison was getting some Triple Jump practice in ahead of his English Schools appearance this coming weekend. Things are looking good considering he’s just returned after an injury. He jumped 10.37m, a new PB and enough to take 2nd place overall and 1st for the MU15’s. Well done Ashton and good luck for the weekend!
So another great evening of athletics is concluded, and once again DHAC are very well represented by their Junior section. Well done to all who took part.
For full results go to https://northeastmastersathletics.weebly.com/negp2021.html
GALLERY – thanks to the Harrier parents who sent in their photos