It’s been a great week for personal best performances across all sorts of distances and events. Seeing our athletes go all out to beat themselves and to see the joy on their faces when they do is exactly what we are here for! Congratulations too to the Beagles who represented Essex at the Sportshall Regional final this week – a brilliant experience for all.
Lee Valley Middle Distance Open
Another mid-week trip to Lee Valley saw a very successful evening for our middle-distance runners over both 800 and 1500 metres with almost everybody picking up a new personal best time!
First runner of the evening was Missy Tiller (U15) who was taking on 800m for the third time in a week! Approaching the distance tonight with a clear race plan, she delivered it to perfection and took home a new PB of 2:20.17. Ava O’Neal (U13) also ran over 800m and sat on the shoulder of the front runner throughout before beating her to the line in a sprint finish and picking up a new PB of 2:48.54.
Our other athletes all ran over 1500m and first up was Max Sanderson (U17). Again, taking a mature and strategic approach to the run, Max led for the first couple of laps before sitting in second and then showing his strength over the last couple of laps to retake the lead, build a 4.5 second gap and to finish first in 4:06.82. Olivia Forrest (U17) was up next, looking to beat her time from her Nationals success at the weekend. Seizing the opportunity to run in a pack (of men) she pushed the pace and finished with a new PB of 4:25.76 to go fourth on the all-time U17 indoor 1500m list.
Jude Hearn (U15) and Louis King (U20) were drawn in the same heat and both took the opportunity to push each other and run from the front. The tactic worked well and led to great new PBs for both. Jude finished first in 4:30.32 and Louis took six seconds off his previous best to finish in 4:40.93.
The last event of the evening saw Isabel Forrest (U15) pursue her new PB with a determined run giving her a new best time of 5:03.22.
Sportshall Regional Final
On Saturday, a number of our Beagles travelled to Norwich for the regional round of the Sportshall competition. All were representing Essex having been selected following trials at the end of last year.
Our athletes competed over a number of different events from speed bounce to shot put with various short runs also included. Some events were individual but there were also team relays. We may not have the full results but we are really impressed at the great efforts shown by our athletes.
Elsie Martin-Boucherb (U11) – standing triple jump ranked 5th best jump 4.99m
Katie Lowe (U13) – 4 lap race ranked 4th best time of 48.6, Standing triple jump ranked 3rd best jump of 6.43.
Evie Abbot (U13) – Speed Bounce ranked 4th with 70 jumps.
Ronnie Marchant (U13) – Shot ranked 7th – 5.49 best throw.
Timi Oluborode Oluseye (U13) – 2 lap race ranked 3rd best time 24.7, Standing triple jump ranked 2nd – 6.89m
Tobi Oluborode Oluseye (U13) – 2 lap race ranked 2nd best time 24.4, Standing long jump ranked 3rd – 2.30m
Nicole Hawkins (u15) finished as the 7th ranked athlete overall with great performances in the four lap race – ranked 4th with best time of 54.2, speed bounce ranked 3rd with 77 jumps and standing long jump ranked 4th with 2.13.
Overall Essex finished second in all age groups but took the team win in the u15 girls event so Nicole will be travelling to Stoke for the UK final in April!
Thank you to Angela H and our Beagles parents for the photos and support.
Sutcliffe Park 60m
Justin Waithe travelled to Sutcliffe Park on Sunday to test himself over an indoor 60m ahead of his planed Essex championship run in a couple of weeks. We are pleased to say the hard work has been paying off and he picked up a seasons best performance of 8.45 seconds.
London Mini Marathon Trials
Sunday morning saw 10 of our Beagles travel to Harrow Lodge park for this year’s Havering mini marathon trials. Those who finish in the top six of their age group get selected to compete at the London mini marathon in April.
Unfortunately on arrival at the park it was discovered that the river had burst its bank meaning the usual course was unusable and a change of route was put in place.
Our Beagles coped with their usual resilience and we have high hopes many will be selected later this week. In the meantime congratulations to Max Sanderson, Preston Taylor, Dean Savery, Mattie Delea, Summer Smith, Evie Warn, Isabel Forrest, Ollie Johnson, Aria Sabado, Daisy Middlemiss and Robyn Colyer who all ran well!
ISA Cross Country
Friday should have seen a number of our Beagles competing in the regional round of the ISA cross country however the event was cancelled two days before due to unusable course conditions. Fortunately for our primary school Beagles, another school stepped in and hosted the event. And we are thrilled to say that two Beagles performed brilliant qualifying for the finals in Worksop at the beginning of March. Huge congratulations to Colm Forrest who was the winner of the year 3/4 boys race and to Jamie Murphy who came 8th in the year 5/6 boys race. Good luck in the final! Congratulations too to Betsy Gilder-Briggs who finished 20th in her race at the same event – a really great effort.
Parkrun and Junior parkun round up
Plenty of Beagles were out hunting for PBs on Saturday with another raft of excellent performances. Starting at Raphael where Alex Young (17:50)was in fine form, placing 4th in a very competitive front of field. Alex comfortably picked up his fastest parkrun time at his 5th event. There were plenty of other fine performances to come with Ollie Johnson (19:44) finishing 15th, just a few seconds ahead of Callum Godfrey (19:55 PB) in 18th, securing a course best time. Isabelle Young (21:14) enjoyed an excellent first run, comfortably picking up her fastest 5k to date & finishing 30th and 3rd female overall. In 47th place was Emily Brewington (22:40) with Paul Johnson (22:40) finishing 48th, same time. Last of our contingent, but no means least, was Dylan Hussain (23:58) who was knocking on the PB door, finishing just 2 second outside his best.
Billericay resorted to a new version of its’ 5-lap winter course, but our Beagles took the changes in their stride with a no less than 5 shiny new PB’s! With Elliot Worth (20:52) taking up 21-minute pacing duties he provided an ideal target for some our juniors in attendance. Daniel Smith (20:47 PB) put in several bursts around the course to keep on track before storming to a huge 5k PB and finishing 16th overall. Lianne Esterhuysen (20:51 PB) ran an impressively executed 5k, always in touch with the pacer, and finished strongly to take 17th, picking up a distance best by over 30 seconds. Sophie Bickerstaff (20:57 PB) started a little keenly but tucked in behind the pacer for the final lap and showed great grit to achieve her 1st sub-21:00 by 3 seconds, finishing 19th. The PB’s weren’t finished there as Laura Durn (21:13 PB) took another 13 seconds of her 5k best and Daniel Esterhuysen (22:27 PB) took 9 seconds off his course best and was just 2 seconds outside his Parkrun PB.
There were yet more great performances at Pegwell Bay as Olivia Forrest (16:32) stormed to 1st place, 26 seconds ahead of the 1st male finisher & picked up her best ever Parkrun time (and the fastest U15G parkrun time ever). Rob Trevor (17:00) finished 3rd while continuing her impressive recent form was Isabel Forrest (18:28), coming 7th overall and securing a new Parkrun best by an astonishing 1:44! Not to be outdone, Oliver Trevor (20:26) put in a great effort to come 12th and pick up his best 5k by over 2 minutes. Amazing efforts everyone!
We had just the one runner at Brentwood this week, but Matthew Delea (22:55) put in a solid performance in the mud to finish 5th overall while at Wickford Memorial, Scott Brooks (18:55) took 1st place, a comfortable 40 seconds clear of 2nd.
Heavy overnight rain put paid to junior events at Hutton Rec. and Lake Meadows. But a few hardy runners made it over to Harrow Lodge with Beagles taking 4 of the top 8 places. Following up on his great run at Pegwell Bay, Oliver Trevor (08:38) ran strongly to finish 2nd, 6 seconds ahead of Emily Brewington (08:44) who finished 3rd & 1st female. Just behind her, was Blossom Smith (09:11) in 4th while finishing 8th was Willow Smith (11:19).
Well done to all our runners this weekend.
Coming up
This weekend sees the English national cross country take place at Weston Park in Staffordshire. Bringing together athletes from all over the country the start lists have more than 400 people in each age group so it’s going to be an eventful day! Good luck to all the Beagles making the trip. On Sunday we also have a number of Beagles taking on the Winter 10km run through the streets of London. We wish you all very well too!
