Chiltern Harriers young athletes had a successful afternoon at the County Schools Championships for which they had been selected to represent their District Schools teams at this important event. Weather conditions were perfect for the large crowd of spectators but the high temperatures and a blustery wind were not ideal for all the athletes
The outstanding performances came from Alex Shelley (DCGS) in the Junior Boys 1500m final, Bex Myers (Pipers Corner) in the Junior Girls 1500m final, Clarice Underwood (Chesham High) in the Junior Girls 100m final and Nick Lingley (The Amersham School) in the Junior Boys 800m final.
First up was Nick Lingley in the 800m final which was a classic and possibly the best race of the day. The County is blessed with 7 highly ranked young male athletes in middle distance at this age group and 4 were taking part in this final, the other 3 were to compete in the 1500m. Isaac Nahoor (Wyc Dist) led from the start and after a very fast first lap opened up a 15m lead down the back straight on the 2nd lap with Randall (Wyc Dist) in hot pursuit followed by Lingley and Mooney, both representing Chiltern District. Nick made his move with 200m to go closing up on Randall as they came into the home straight. Both athletes were closing fast on the race leader who was feeling the early pace. In the final few metres Randall just got past Nahoor on his inside but Nick was just beaten for the silver medal. All three athletes were well inside the English Schools qualifying time of 2mins 8secs with new Pb's and Nick Lingley's time was 2 mins 6.5 secs.
Clarice Underwood was next up with classy wins in both heat and final, equalling the Schools qualifying time of 12.8secs despite the strong headwind.
In the Junior Girls 1500m final first year Bex Myers destroyed the field with an excellent gun to tape display of front running. Although the weather conditions weren't best suited for distance running her time of 5.02.9 was close to her Pb although not close enough to the English Schools qualifying time. She remains optimistic that her 800m time of 2mins 20.72 (just seven tenths of a second outside) will be good enough to earn her selection in that event.
Although only rated 3rd best going into the Junior Boys 1500m final Alex Shelley won a great tactical battle with a tremendous last 450m of unrelenting speed which was too much for his two great rivals. Alex is still just short of the qualifying times for both 800m and 1500m but hopes that he will achieve in races this week. The final chance will be in next Saturday's Inter-County Schools match involving 6 Counties at Southampton for which athletes finishing in the first 3 places at the Bucks Champs would be selected.
Other good performances came from first year Daniel Loach (DCGS) finishing 5th with a new Pb of 2.19.6 in the Junior Boys 800m, Allan Stewart (Chesham High) 4th and Tom Kirby (The Amersham School) 7th in the Junior Boys 1500m, Faris Churcher (Chesham High) 4th in the Junior Boys Triple Jump, Sam Rogers (DCGS) 5th in the Junior Boys 200m final and Michael Belcher (DCGS) 3rd in the Inter Boys 1500m.
Gary Howells
Coach/ Team Manager
Chiltern Harriers AC