Trend continues for Harriers

IPSWICH Harriers took second place at Melbourne Park, Chelmsford in the Under- 17 boys National Young Athletes League meeting.

Ipswich finished behind Chelmsford and ahead of VPH and Eton Manor.

As this season has progressed Harriers have had some excellent results from the sprint and field athletes taking part in the leagues and this meeting continued in the same trend.

Under-17 Ben Higgins again set up another first place and pb in the 100ms where his time now stands at 11.1s. Nathan Hanley also finished in first place and set up his best 100ms time by ducking under the 14.0s time with a new time of 13.9s.

In the under 15 100ms De'Onte Green found himself in a very fast race where both first and second place were given identical times of 11.5s. De'Onte was deemed by the officials to be second.

In the U-17 200ms Higgins and Sean Foster gave Ipswich a double win and it was Foster who recorded his best time of 23.4s, again in the under 15 200ms. Green had to settle for a second place where he recorded his second pb of the day with 23.9s. In the non scoring event Chris Pattle had his fastest time of 28.3s.

Foster ran a brilliant 400ms well ahead of the field when he came across the line in 54.0s. The second placed athletes time was 55.7s.

Aaron Pentilow-Davis in the under 15 boys recorded two pb's which came from the 400ms and 800ms timed at 69.4 and 2.47.4s respectively.

Ramone Kersey, in the same age group, took on the 80ms hurdles and his time has been lowered to 13.1. Kevin Churchyard, in the under 17 800ms also has a new time of 2.20.9s.

Three Ipswich lads came home with convincing wins from their field events.

At the long jump English Schools bronze medal winner Green leapt 5.94ms which gave him a 60cm gap from the second placed boy.

In the triple jump Martin Bennett leapt a new best of 11m 14 which gave him 44cms in hand from the next competitor. In the B string from the same event Ben Hanley was first with 10m 48 when the second placed boy leapt 8.48ms.

Others to gain pbs were U-15 Duncan Macrosson, long jump 5.03ms, U-17s Chris Bullard, high jump 1.60ms and Liam Smith, shot 10.33ms. Robert Jarvis was the winner in the 100ms hurdles.

On his first outing as an Ipswich Harriers, Kieron Wooby had a B string win in the 200ms timed at 28.7 for the U-13's.

From five relays, the Ipswich baton came across the finishing line in first place on three occasions with plenty of time in hand. For the U-13s 4 x 100ms the time was 57.8 to Eton Manor 62.1, in both the under 17s, 4 x 100 and 4 x 400ms it was 46.4 to VPH, 48.0 and 3.37 to Chelmsford's 4.04.2.

AT Bury St Edmunds the Southern Womens League meeting saw Harriers athletes were unfortunate to finishes in second place behind West Suffolk.

All the ladies worked extremely hard on what was a very hot day. Team manager Sue Tunaley was impressed with the team's turnout and the way they performed.

Every point was well fought for and many took on different events to make sure that Ipswich were always in contention for a good result carried out with perfect and positive sportsmanship.

The first track event of the day was the 400ms hurdles covered by Vicky Tunaley and Andrea McNally.

Both ladies had never run the event before but neither had a thing to worry about, finishing first A string and second B string to take nine out of a possible ten in times of 71.3s and 81.8s.

In the 300ms hurdles Vicky Scott (U-17) also took on the event for the first time, finishing second in 54.6 and from the 100ms hurdles Ervenette Lassus also finished in 20.1s.

It was two more firsts from the 80ms hurdles covered by Sarah Morris and Lizbeth Hicks in 14.4 and 18.1s respectively.

Tasha Double had a season's best run in the 200ms which she won in a time of 26.6s and it was top marks in the 400ms when Tunaley and Sarah Plumb ran 61.5 and 63.5s.

In the 800ms two pbs and two first places were returned by Louise Gregory and Kirsty Thorndyke with 2.20.5 and 2.30.9s.

Tasha Barnes-Smith was second A string in the 1500ms and 5.17.9 and Laura Anderson was first B string in with 5.30.8s. From the 3000ms Ipswich took the full 10 points when Claire Holme and Marie Shirley ran 10.38.2 (pb) and 12.47.6.

Amy Wilson took wins from the shot and discus, Louise Rickard in triple jump, shot and pole vault, Vicky Scott, high jump, Ervenette Lassus, javelin with a pb of 23.72ms and in the triple jump Kirsty Thorndyke with a best of 9.66ms.

For the U-15 girls Ipswich had maximum points from the hurdles with Sarah Tippett and Kerry Fuller and Nicole Sadler and Emily Beckett covered the A and B strings of the 100 and 200ms.

Natasha Downes and Katie Barker took on the 800ms and both finished in second spot in 2.42.1 and 2.59.2's,. It was Barker's first attempt at this event.

Kerry Fuller won the shot and Lana Rogers was second B string and in the discus. Hayley Todd was second with a pb of 21.45ms and in the javelin Todd and Emily Beckett were both second with Beckett's throw of 12.29 her best.

In the senior 4 x 400ms relay the ladies had a wonderful race, beating all of the opposition with a large lead and in the under 15 4 x 100ms the Ipswich girls did the same thing.

IT was the turn of the junior athletes from Ipswich to host the National Junior League and both team managers were thrilled with their turnouts.

The ladies finished second overall and the men third, clearly the best result of the season in spite of the fact that the weather was unbearably hot with not even a breeze.

Sean Foster again had a brilliant 400ms run and this time he lowered his pb to 51.0s, finishing in second place. Ben Higgins took the win from the 200ms in 23.0s and Foster was the B string winner in 24.1. Higgins was second in the 100ms and Chris Johnson, back from a long lay-off, was second B string, both timed at 11.7s.

Michael Fuller just can't stop doing pb's this season and it was no exception in this meeting. As usual he worked very hard for the club and clearly deserves the glory. In the 800ms he lowered his time to 2.05.4s.

Other first places went to Liam Smith, hammer and Scott Stannard discus. Jermaine Bernard, with a niggling injury, had to settle for throws only and returned some promising results by throwing 29.50ms in the discus and 43.21ms in the javelin.

There was a storming race in the 4 x 100ms relay from Johnson, Foster, Higgins and Bernard when they had streets to spare at the finish of the race.

Tunaley showed a clean pair of heels to the opposition in the 4 x 100ms race when she won the event in a season's best time of 58.0s. For her second first place she won the 200ms and for her third the discus which quite outstanding.

In the 1500ms Hannah Arbon and Lizbeth Hicks gave Ipswich top points in 5.51.0 and 7.13.0s and Hicks also had a pb when she finished second in the hammer with 16.34ms.

In the triple jump Sharon Wallis had a new pb when she leapt 10.29ms. Two ladies finished in second place, Leanne Thorndyke in the 800ms and Helen McGrath in the 100ms.