So… Steeplechasing! Always a club eager to try new things, this week saw a few of our members tackle their first steeplechase event! We also know that schools events are underway en mass now – so please do let us know how your athlete is getting on when competing!
Steeplechase Festival
Winter very much returned to Bury St Edmunds on Sunday where rain, wind and freezing conditions were still not enough to prevent some brilliant Beagles performances as a number of our athletes made their Steeplechase debuts at the West Suffolk Athletics Arena Steeplechase festival.
Following our camp a few weeks ago, Evie Warn (U17) was first to tackle the steeplechase with her 1500m event. Despite submerging in water during her first jump, she persevered, grew in confidence throughout the race and finished an amazing third with a brilliant time of 5:28.01. Jude Hearn (U15) was up next, also over 1500m, and took a very confident approach to the event adopting a whole range of styles to going over each hurdle – all of them very effective! Finishing his race first with a time of 5:14.51 and, more importantly, a massive smile on his face! Finally, Dean Savery (U20) tackled the 2000m steeplechase, finding his footing on the first lap, he got better and better with each jump, managing to finish with a brilliant sprint to the line for a time of 6:35.23. We are massively impressed with all three performances especially given the limited training beforehand! We can’t wait to see if they will do more of this in the future!
Away from the steeplechase, the event also saw a number of flat races. In a mixed age group 800m event, Missy Tiller was first U15 with a run of 2:24.00. Over 1500m, Heidi Woodley (U15) ran an amazing 10 second PB to finish first in 4:55.34. Isabel Forrest ran 5:16.89 in the same race. Finally, Louis King (U20) also tackled 1500m with a good run of 4:36.56.
Well done to everyone who ran – given the weather, those performances were particularly special!
Cheshire 5K
A great 5k course in Cheshire tempted the Forrest’s on Friday night! With an incredibly big field of over 700 runners looking for fast times, Olivia Forrest finished 9th female (16:58) and Isabel Forrest also ran well to go sub 20 minutes (19:50).
Schools News
The start of some great schools athletics competitions saw Jude Hearn in action at a number of events – a first place 1500m finish on Saturday and a new long jump PB of 4.80m He was also in action on Tuesday again finishing first in a 1500m and also tackling the pole vault with a best jump of 2.30m!
Orly Morton was competing for his school at Harrow with a great 1500m run of 4:54.89 and a discus throw of 16.95m.
University of Birmingham Open and BMC Races
Travelling back from Cheshire, the Forrest’s stopped off in Birmingham for a 3000m break! Olivia Forrest took on strong competition in the British Milers Club race finishing in 9:38.17 whilst Isabel Forrest ran the open event in a seasons best (11:00.90).
Parkrun and Junior parkun round up
At Brentwood, we had an impressive performance from all our Beagles as we filled the top 4 places on the day. Leading the charge was Max Sanderson (18:02) who ran strongly to finish over 2½ minutes clear of 2nd placed Matthew Delea (20:34). Daniel Jaycock (21:00) finished next while 4th went to Evie Warn (21:26). Stuart Crowther (22:13) was 8th, while Erin Delea (32:00) took 50th.
Over at Chelmsford, regular Adam Armour (21:12) placed 49th with first timer Calum Evans* 80th (22:14), while at Basildon, Elliot Worth (19:57) placed 2nd from 137 runners. Enjoying some touring in Staffordshire was Isabelle Young (24:31), finishing 66th on her first visit while also visiting a new event was Madison Kindler (18:01) who joined over 700 other runners at Bromley. Another impressive run from Madison who recorded an age grade of 94.73%!
Finally, we had 6 runners at Raphael with Simon Knightbridge* (19:18) placing 6th, Keith Thornton* (20:47) 16th, Matthew Jones (21:55) 26th, Emily Brewington (22:56) 39th, Stuart Bennett (31:24) 206th and Freya Brewington (33:44) in 238th.
On Sunday, it was yet another very unspringlike morning for our junior runners who battled rain & cold winds. The inclement weather didn’t prevent a great turn out of Beagles at Hutton Rec however, as Madison Kindler (07:43) surged home to take 1st finishing over a minute clear of the 2nd placed runner. Ethan Wilson (09:31) then led in 5 more Beagles finishing 3rd, ahead of Nadia Price (09:57) in 4th, Liam Worth (10:22) in 5th, Jessica Thomson* (10:32) in 6th and Noah Johnson* (10:34) in 7th. Arlo Johnson* ran a new PB in 9th (11:07) with Chloe Thomson* just behind(11:08) in 10th, Bailee Abrahams* (11:26) 11th and Joshua Thomson* (12:16) 17th.
Just the two runners elsewhere – Adam Armour (08:08) placed 3rd from 57 runners in Chelmsford and Finley Smith* (9:30)also placed 3rd at Harrow Lodge.
Well done to all our runners this weekend. Note for parents, if your child has an * by their name, please help our editors by adding Brentwood Beagles as their club under their parkrun profile (groups). Feel free to contact us if you need help setting this up.
Triathlon News
Congratulations to Sophie Bickerstaff who took on the Medway Duathlon this week – a run and bike event. Sophie finished a fantastic third in the tristar 2 category with her time of 19:55.
Coming up
It’s a week of Watford’s! With the Wednesday night Watford Open taking place and the second round of our EYAL matches also taking place. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone competing and to see our new EYAL t-shirts out in the open!
