The
past two Watford evening opens have seen great performances from
Chiltern Harriers youngsters, particularly in the middle distance
events.On June 15th, the Under 17s had a field day with personal bests across the board in the 800m races. Michael Goddard (pictured left) led the way with a scorching 2.00.92 in Race 14. In Race 13 Ben Whitney also clocked new best figures of 2.04.98 and in Race 11 George Gillingwater achieved 2.07.35 with Under 15 James McCarthy slightly off his best with 2.07.48.
In Race 10 Chris Strong continued his recent good form with 2.12.22 and in Race 9 Alex Johnson clocked 2.11.53, a PB for Chris and season’s best for Alex. In Race 7 Under 13 Will Perkin was badly boxed but still managed 2.21.39 and in Race 6 Under 15 Connie Lewis logged new best figures of 2.22.53.
In Race 5 Under 15 Joe Cochrane, returning from injury ran away from the field to clock 2.20.74 with Under 13 Tom Conway in second in a new best of 2.24.11. In Race 2 U13 David Willcox ran a season’s best of 2.36.96 and Abi Jones ran 2.54.04 in Race 1.
On June 29th there was a spread of events for the Chiltern contingent. In the 100m U15 Rachel Klima ran 14.76, U13 boy Alex Ahern 14.36 and U15 Sarah Cross 14.04. James White won Race 6 in 12.02, a new PB, just outside the magic 12 second barrier. Matt Sperling had another good run in 12.81.
U13 Tom Conway and U15 Rosalind Firth tackled 200m and long jump, Tom clocking a new best of 28.79 and Rosalind 30.18. They jumped 4.37m and 3.92m respectively.
In the 1500m there were PBs galore. In Race 1 Mimi Houlihan-Burne ran strongly to achieve 5.42.58. Race 2 saw new figures of 5.16.72 for U15 Katie Bench in a gutsy run and a great effort from U13 Richard Slade to clock 5.27.06. Hannah Thear broke her record in Race 3 achieving 5.06.96 but David Willcox was below his best in 5.16.62.
U13 Sam Henning took a chunk off his previous best in Race 5 with 4.59.57 and U15 Hannah Morton also ran new figures of 4.56.88 in Race 6. In Race 7 U15 Bill Hughes continued his successful return from injury clocking a new best of 4.43.72 whilst U13 Will Perkin had to settle for his second best time of the season with 4.51.24.
In Race 8 U17 Jimmy Davies ran strongly to log a new PB of 4.34.46 and U15 Joe Aherne (pictured right) ran well after an injury break to run 4.38.14. Race 11 saw U17 George Gillingwater run positively but fade in the last 300m to run 4.22.78, a few seconds outside his PB. In Race 12 U20 Allan Stewart ran a season’s best of 4.07.69 and senior Matt Bennett rounded things off in Race 14 with 4.04.79.