Midsummer Night's Dream performances by Teens

For the last week of summer training, nine of our Teens went to Gloucester to compete in the last Midsummer Open (MSO) meeting. Hosted by Cheltenham Harriers each week in July, this meeting had three events this week of interest to our Teens:

Jumpers and Sprinters: Aria and Elliot

Long Jump:   Aria Stavrakakis (12), Elliot Fountain (12) & Evie Mence (13)

200m:   Aria, Elliott, Evie

600m: Evie

1500m: Ben Clarke (15), Ben Conway (14, 2nd claim), Ed Knight (11), Henry Woodfine (13), Tippi Brown (13), Toby Conway (13)

The track events were held in heats based on expected performance, so they were mixed age and gender. The 600m and 1500m races had twelve runners per heat, the 200m eight sprinters. There were also two “heats” for the Long jump, so there were not many opportunities for in-house competition for our members.

Tippi keeping warm and hydrated for her 1500m

The key aspect in these events is gaining experience and putting in a good performance - the placings are not so important.

For some the Teens, this was their first athletics meeting outside of school events and so there were mainly “PBs” on the night. Some of our more experienced competitors: the two Bens, Evie, Toby and of course Aria, were joined by relative newcomers to T&F: Ed, Henry and Tippi, the latter two who only joined recently.

In the long jump, Elliot did his first competition and jumped an impressive 3.91m. Aria wasn’t far behind with 3.86m, just a couple of inches down on her official PB. Kerry Newell, our Teens coach, noted, that Aria “showed great maturity with speed / adjustment of her start mark”. Evie jumped 3.50m which considering she’s been having knee issues was respectable.

"Flying" Aria and Elliot

Evie and Aria near the finish line

Evie looking relaxed before 600m

In the 200m, Elliot found himself in a heat with some really fast sprinters and did really well to get under 30s finishing in 29.44. (EA PB Award Level 4). Sometimes running against faster runners can cause you to try too hard and run tensed up which slows you down. In the other heat Evie and Aria did have a good battle, with Evie getting the honours in 30.9s (Level 2) with Aria 31.18s (Level 3) for another PB.

Our only athlete in the 600m, Evie, ran this race only 50 minutes before her 200m, which isn’t a long time to recover. Evie has run this distance event in the last two years, with her PB from 2023. This time she ran sub-2, a nearly 10s improvement, so really done Evie. Must have set. You up for the 200m later. Evie’s 600m and 200m, meant she jumped in the older age group Long Jump, to avoid clashes between her races and jumps.

In the 1500m, our oldest competitor on the night, Ben Clarke (U17) ran in the A final which had many good local club athletes (CH&H, Gloucs AC, Swindon Harriers and Western Tempo), which meant the pace was quick, and it meant Ben was pulled to a big PB of 4:32.91 (10s improvement from May’s Glos CC) [Level 3]. Ben Conway (U15) ran In Final B and was just outside his PB finishing in 4:43.35 [Level 5] so well done, both Bens.

Ben (L) and Henry (R) : 1500m

In the other in-house race of the night, Henry led home Toby and Ed, in a cracking run finishing just outside 5 minutes [Level 3], so well done, Henry.

Tippi was running in another heat. 

Being their first races both Henry and Tippi went off a bit too quick, Henry just losing out in his heat in a sprint finish. Both Henry and Tippi’s times were ‘unofficial' PBs (from school events) so well done to them. Ed was 4s outside his official PB [Level 3] but Toby managed a big improvement in his PB in his first 1500 of the year. Following his really good Bourton Mile, we had high expectations but improving your PB by 30s exceeded them, 5:16 [Level 2]. Well done to all our younger Teens on their 1500m performances.

RESULTS

Mixed U15s Long Jump

6th Elliot Fountain 3.91m

8th Aria Stavrakakis 3.86m

Mixed U15+ Long Jump

11th Evie Mence 3.50m

U11+ 600m Heat C

2nd Evie Mence 1:58.18 PB

U13+ 200m Heat D

6th Elliot Fountain 29.44s

U13+ 200m Heat H

2nd Evie Mence 30.9s

3rd Aria Stavrakakis 31.18s PB

U13+ 1500m Final A

10th Ben Clarke 4:32.91s PB

big PB from 4:42.5 (May Glos CC)

U13+ 1500m Final B

9th Ben Conway 4:43.35

U13+ 1500m Final D

2nd Henry Woodfine 5:03.95

6th Toby Conway 5:15.55 PB (big PB from last year's MSO)

9th Ed Knight 5:23.10

U13+ 1500m Final E

7th Tippi Brown 5:51.16

We now have a bit of a hiatus, as there are very few T&F events due to the school holidays. Hopefully, there will be some end of season meetings for the Teens to do before we get to the cross-country races.

Dorian