Great performances at first Midsummer Open
- dorianmatts
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
I always extol the importance of quality over quantity and for this first Midsummer Open (MSO) Track and Field meeting, hosted by Cheltenham and County Harriers at the Blackridge Stadium, Gloucester, we certainly had four quality performers from the Teens, all achieving EA standard (PB Awards) performances, on a great evening for track and field..
Our competitors were:
100m Aria Stavrakakis and Elliot Fountain running in the same heat (E), both competing as Under 13s
Mile : Ben Clarke (15) and Elliot in Heat B and Wilf Ryder (Under 13) in Heat E.
Elliot only had twenty minutes recovery from his 100m before doing the Mile and although they rely on different energy systems (mainly alactic for 100m and mainly aerobic for the mile) the loading on his leg muscles from his 100m must have tolled on him for his mile, but more on that below.
The meeting was a graded meeting so competitors were in heats with similar standard runners, Heat A having the fastest, etc.
Elliot won his 100m in 14.14s which is a EA Level 5 performance, which is quite something for an athlete who does well at Cross-country and other longer distance events. Not to be outdone, Aria, who was fourth in 14.44s, achieved a Level 6 EA standard. Both were, not surprisingly, PBs for Aria and Elliot.
In comparison, the winner of Heat A, a Cardiff Harriers senior, athlete's time (11.03s) was also a Level 5 performance, to put our younger Teens' performances into perspective.
20 minutes later Elliot lined up with the winner from the Club's 40th Anniversary Parkrun, our own Ben Clarke (still only 15). Well, Elliot did struggle by his own high standards, completing his mile in 5:43.64, which is about half a minute slower than he hoped for, but that was still fast enough for EA Level 3 1500m run; so well done, Elliot.
PS I will have to ponder the physiology challenge of doing 100m and 1500m, as it's not a usual combination of events!
Ben had no such tiredness problems, having not raced since the Parkrun. I was meant to be calling out the splits as he went round, but after he went through the first one 6s ahead of schedule, there really wasn't much point. He ran away from the field and eased up over last 600m (it was quite warm) but still broke 5 minutes, finishing in 4:58.80, also equivalant to a Level 3 EA standard.
That performance is only 4s outside Dominic Haig's U17 mile record from 1990. Well done, Ben.
NB the fastest Club mile (on the roads) was by Marc Fallows, as a U20 (4:33), and he was running the mile tonight as well (in Heat A), albeit as a M50 for Western Tempo, and was only 0.16s faster than Ben.
Lastly, Wilf ran his mile, coming third in his heat in 6:07.67, which was a PB by 12s and is a Level 1 EA standard 1500m, just missing the Level 2 by 0.2s, so well done, Wilf.
NB I do realise that we need to get some more Club vests for the Teens!
We will be returning to Blackridge for the fourth MSO on 23rd July and will be encouraging other Teens to have a go and achieve PBs.
Report : Dorian
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