As ever this year's English Schools Championships were excellently organised with the best young athletes in the country producing great performances in reasonably good weather conditions, if a little cooler than last summer's championships. With the precision timing of events this mini "Olympics" is both a spectacle and a somewhat daunting event for young inexperienced athletes competing in front of a very large number of spectators. Brendan Foster, John Mayock, Jonathan Edwards and BBC commentator Paul Dickinson would be amongst the medal presenters.
Last year Clarice Underwood was a first year in the Junior Girls age group (U15's) and was taking part mainly for the experience after achieving precisely the 100m qualifying time of 12.8 secs. The Chiltern Harrier and Chesham High School student then surprised everybody by qualifying from the heats to finish in 8th and last position in the Final after setting a new personal best of 12.49 secs.
This year Clarice has progressed very well winning silver in the 60m at the South of England Indoor Championships, finishing 4th in the AAA's 60m Indoor Final and then winning bronze in the 100m at the South of England Track & Field Championships. But her main target was to return to the English Schools Championships and finish in a medal winning position in the 100m Final. She realised this meant taking the sport seriously and getting down to some real training and with gentle persuasion from Chiltern Harriers' young athletes' Sprints coach Peter Griffiths she buckled down.
Patience is not one of Clarice's virtues and she had to wait until 25 June before achieving new Pb's at both 100m (12.4) and 200m (26.8) but it was the right time with the English Schools Champs just 2 weeks away.
Better still when she looked at the official programme on Thursday evening after the long journey to Gateshead she found that the leading two 100m/200m athletes in the UK had both opted for the 200m (athletes can only take part in one individual event). Her medal chances had improved.
On the Friday morning running in Heat 4 of 4 Clarice knew she only needed to finish in the first three to achieve a place in Saturday morning's semi-final. However, with one of her main rival's, Lauretta Curtis ranked 4 from Chesterfield, in the next lane she wanted to impose herself and run a fast time. Her start was explosive but some 10 metres from the line she suddenly eased down and was narrowly beaten. Her time was a new Pb of 12.3 secs but Curtis had clocked 12.29. Afterwards she explained to Club coach Gary Howells that her dramatic slow down was due to a sudden dread that she hadn't heard a recall gun signalling a false start. There was no false start and she probably would have clocked 12.2 or faster if she had run through.
In Saturday morning's semi-final once again Clarice was up against Curtis and they would be running into a strong headwind. A false start was unsettling and Clarice didn't get away so well in the restart. Once again she was overtaken in the last few strides to clock 12.63 with Curtis winning in 12.55. In the other semi-final Ruth Dean from Bath won in a time of 12.66.
The final was in the afternoon just after 3pm, which meant none of the finalists would be able to participate in the 'Olympic' style parade for all the County teams. They would be warming up in preparation for their most important race. Competitors are allowed to use starting blocks in a final and Clarice was aiming to get a very fast start. Once again they would be running into a strong headwind and Curtis would be in the next lane to Clarice. The gun fired and Clarice got the best start ever. She was up by 3 metres almost immediately and never relinquished that lead, bursting through the finish line in to win gold in 12.39 secs. A disappointed Curtis clocked 12.59 secs and was pipped for the silver medal by fast finishing Dean who recorded a time of 12.58 secs.
Nick Lingley (The Amersham School) and Alex Shelley (Dr Challoners GS) both Chiltern Harriers were taking part in this event for the first time. Nick was competing in the Junior Boys 1500m which had two heats on Friday morning with only the first 3 in each heat going through to Saturdays' Final plus 4 fastest losers. In the tougher of the two heats Nick was ranked 6th fastest and the field contained the top two runners in the UK. A brave effort saw Nick go into the last lap in 3rd place but the early pace took it's toll as he was overtaken by two faster finishing athletes and he had to settle for 5th place in 4.23.29 and wait to see if he qualified as a fastest loser. Unluckily his time was just beaten by the 6th placer in the first heat and he missed out on a run in the Final.
Alex Shelley raced in the Junior Boys 800m heats looking for a place in the semi-finals later on the Friday. Alex prefers the 1500m event but having narrowly missed the qualifying time was keen to give the 800m his best shot. In a tightly fought heat, in which he was only ranked 5th fastest, he came into the finishing straight with a very narrow lead and 4 fast finishing athletes all around him. He crossed the line in 5th place in a time of 2.07.53 just a whisker outside his Pb and like his clubmate missed out on a fastest loser position by one spot. Both Nick and Alex thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to compete at such a great event.
Gary Howells
Coach/ Team Manager
Chiltern Harriers AC