Wanda Diamond League, Doha, Qatar (Fri. 10th May)
Daryll Neita notched up her second Diamond League win, this time over 100m, where she took the win by one-hundredth of a second with a time of 10.98s.
Kent County Track & Field Championships, Ashford (Sat. 11th & Sun. 12th May)
The Kent County Championships are the first big championships of the track and field season, writes Mick Bond. The Kent County AA do a great job of putting on a well-run event and Ashford was blessed with two days of glorious sunshine to make for a superb weekend’s athletics. As befitting a club whose membership numbers have just passed 600 (up from less than 400 pre Covid!), we had a record entry of 76 members signing up to compete. Total entries were on a par with recent years just short of 1,000, and there were good numbers in nearly every event. As well as athletes there was excellent support from parents and coaches creating a really good club atmosphere.
Cambridge Harriers showed we had quality as well as quantity as the weekend went on with lots of light blue vests appearing in finals and getting on the medal rostrum. Our total medal count was 44, the best for over 25 years and was made up of 13 Gold, 14 Silver and 17 Bronze. As a club our wide spectrum of coaching opportunities means we field athletes across the full range of events and medals were won in every area of the sport.
Sprints: The warm weather, good competition and following breeze made for fast times in the sprints though some were denied legal PB's when the wind gusted over the allowed 2m/second. Omari Markland-Montgomery and Christal Izuchukwu were both casualties of the gusty conditions as lifetime bests 10.62s for silver in the senior men’s 100m and 12.47s for bronze in the senior women’s 100 were denied by the wind. Further down the age groups Dayne Douglas and Michael Somade-Makinde both ducked under 11 seconds for the first time picking up 2nd and 3rd in the U20 100m with 10.89s and 10.93s respectively.
Emily Cadman showed she is returning to her best form with wins in both theU17W 100m and 200m (12.21s & 24.82s) whilst relative new comer Danielle Agyemang-Tolbert progressed well taking 6th and 3rd in the same events (12.62s and 25.30s). In the Under 15 age group Nia Thomas held her form to take second in a very close girls 100m, whilst Jovanni Lyndsay did the same in the boys event (11.49s) with Zavier Brathwaite not far behind for 3rd (11.54s).
Hurdles: The club’s rise as a force in hurdling continued as we won five out of the 14 hurdles titles on offer whilst taking silver or bronze in five of the others. Best performance of the weekend went to Lily Gayle (pictured below - courtesy Mark Hookway (TAC)) who beat Louise O’Callaghan’s U17 women’s 80m hurdles record which has stood for 26 years with 11.46s, whilst Hans Nmaju would have broken his own record in the U17M event (set a mere two weeks ago), if again the wind hadn’t again gone above the 2m/sec mark.
Lily Gayle (Lane 5) winning the U17W 80m hurdles in club record time - Gabby Noyce 3rd in Lane 6
In the longer hurdles Elijah Olaleye looked very much at home in the U17M 400 hurdles winning in a time of 56.44s and will surely challenge Charlie Perry’s club record before the season is out. Not to be outdone sister Keziah won the U20W 400 hurdles in a big PB of 64.12s. Gabby Noyce added to the collection with a clear win the U17W 300 hurdles in 45.80s.
Distance Running Events: As said earlier it was good to see many Cambridge vests making finals across the age groups and whilst only one medal from these group of events, Bobby Babaker smashed his 5000m PB with 15:37.30s with Brett Baker less than half a second behind, there were a number of 4th and 5th places and a plethora of PBs showing there is clearly progress being made in this area.
Some of our young middle distance runners: Daniel Whitehouse - Celia Yeatman - Monty Brown
Race Walk: Hannah Hopper and Luc Legon both retained their respective senior 3000m race walk titles with 15:36.99s and 13:19.11s respectively.
Jumps: Lizzy McKen took gold in her first proper triple jump competition whilst there were silvers for Cerys Daniels (U20 HJ), Daniel Obike (U17 HJ), Brandon Sikity (SM LJ) and bronze for Hans Nmaju in a very high standard long jump.
Throws: The Bridge family’s record at this championships was played four, won four as Michael took the U17 shot and discus titles and sister Hannah did the same in the U20W events. Michael’s shot performance of 15.75m was almost a metre on his PB and should rank him in the UK top three with ease. Elsewhere there were silver medals for Josh Baker (U17 JT - 48.53m), Sophie Fenner (SW HT - 35.63m) and Gabby Noyce (U17W shot - 9.74m) and bronze for Natalie Mann (SW DT- 25.11m), Katie Marsh (U17W JT - 31.70m) and Sophie Floyd (U15G DT - 21.61m)
Sophie Fenner & Katie Marsh on their respective medal podiums
Darent Valley 10km, Eynsford (Sun. 12th May)
The Darent Valley10km is a multi-terrain race which starts and finishes in the village of Eynsford and is mainly rural and undulating along country lanes. U20 Liam Carr was the clubs first finisher in 15th spot in a time of 38:26, followed by Mark Penny (39:42) in 17th. Other finishers were Rose Baker (49:03), Stephanie Dann (58:49) and Elizabeth Horsley (1:15:40).
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