Monkton Stadium was, once again, the setting for the 3rd North East Grand Prix meeting this season. Several of our Juniors made the journey to battle it our against their North East counterparts in another exciting round of track and field action. Here’s a quick round up of how things went….
100m Hurdles
Charlotte Rutter got things underway as the only DHAC hurdler tonight. Once again, she produced another solid performance finishing in 3rd place in a time of 15.34s. Well done, Charlotte.
100m
Onto the sprints and on this evening’s schedule was the 100m; first up was Lottie Graves in Heat 3. She’s had a fabulous start to the season and she continued with another impressive performance tonight. Lottie finished joint 1st in the FU13 category, crossing the line in 14.38s (AAA Grade 4.) In Heat 5 Hugo Douglas-Reeves was back in action; he was a little disappointed with his time of 13.95s, but sometimes things just don’t go your way. I’m sure he’ll be back again soon with a new PB! And our last 100m sprinter today was Krista Bissett-Brown. She had a cracking run, just shaving a fraction off her PB with a new best of 13.46s taking 1st place in the FU17 category. Top sprinting from everyone, well done!
400m
Under 15, Tori Buckley added another distance to her repertoire of disciplines when she ran the 400m for the first time tonight. What wasn’t a a surprise was the amount of effort she put into race; her usual 110%. But I think it’s fair to say even Tori was shocked by how well she did, finishing in 2nd place, less than a second behind the U17 winner in a time of 1:04.84. An outstanding debut, Buckers, well done!
1 Mile
Our DHAC milers were back in action tonight with Under 20, Adam Russell, the first of them to take to the track in Heat 1. An exciting race in which the battle for the front changed several times over the distance, including Adam himself who lead for a while. In the end it was one of Gateshead’s senior athletes who won with Adam crossing the line in 5th (1st U20) in a time of 4:24.53. Next up in Heat 2 was Under 17, Olivia Douglas-Reeves. This was only her second official 1 Mile race and it turned out to be a huge improvement on her debut at this distance. She smashed her previous PB by nearly 17 seconds finishing 11th overall (2nd FU17) in an excellent 6:19.71. Another young Harrier in top form was Under 15, Savannah Tarn. She stepped up in Heat 3 in what was also her second track mile, and had a cracking race also beating her previous PB. After a tough race she crossed the line in 5th place overall (3rd FU15) with a new best of 5:43.61. We had two of our Juniors in the fourth heat; Under 15, Zara Jones and Under 17, Mia Wetherill. Zara had the race of her life beating many her senior, male and female. She was the first female junior across the line smashing her PB by a whopping 28 seconds to take 4th place overall (1st FU15). Mia produced another solid run finishing just over a second off her PB in 15th overall (2nd FU17). Well done to all our Milers; some outstanding performances as usual.
Shot Putt
Under 13, Hugo Douglas-Reeves and Under 17, Lily Thompson were our two shot putters tonight. Both produced some excellent throws with the 4kg shot; Lily showed her strength to take 4th place with 9.05m and Hugo took 9th place with a best of 6.97m.
Long Jump
There was plenty of action in the long jump pit tonight with a total of 28 jumpers taking part; 4 of them from DHAC. Under 20, Charlotte Rutter was in fine form, and improved her PB by 21cm jumping 5.34m (AAA Grade 3), which was enough to take 1st place female. Next was Under 17, Krista Bissett-Brown who produced some excellent jumps again; her best tonight was 4.68m, only 3cm off her PB which put her in 3rd place FU17. More top jumping followed from Tori Buckley with a fabulous jump of 4.41m; a new PB and 2nd place in the FU15 category. And not wanting to be outdone, our fourth long jumper tonight also produced a new PB. Lottie Graves‘ best tonight was 4.37m, a AAA Grade 2 jump nonetheless, which made her winner of the FU13 category. An outstanding performance from our long jumpers tonight, well done!
Javelin
And finally, Lily Thompson was back again for the javelin. More superb throwing from Lily, with a best of 21.74m putting her in 5th place for the FU17’s. Nice one, Lily!
Overall, a fabulous evening of competition with some outstanding results from our junior section. Well done to all who took part. Look out for details of the next meeting on 30th June at: – https://northeastmastersathletics.weebly.com/store/p70/NEGPMatch12021.html
Photos courtesy of Harrier parents and Geoff Fenwick. Big thank you to all.