Inspired by the Rio Olympics and talk of ‘Super Saturday’ four members of Banbury Harriers were in medal winning form when they travelled to Nuneaton for the Midlands U17 Championships last weekend.
First up on Saturday was Emily Thompson, fresh from her recent successful debut for England last month. She lived up to her billing as a strong favourite for the 800m when she cruised to victory and a convincing gold medal in a time of 2m.13s, beating her nearest competitor by over 4s.
Ollie Sprio ensured a place in Saturday afternoon’s 100m final by coming third in his heat. The final with the English Schools Champion and eventual winner Kaie Chambers- Brown in the field was always going to be tough race. Ollie gave his all, finishing in a new PB time of 11.22s and missing out on the silver by 0.01s, unfortunately in doing so he fall as he dipped for the line and ended the afternoon with an operation in hospital, having broken his thumb in two places in the fall.
The day finished with Javelin, and Shannon Dawes knowing she needed to be in top form to stand a chance of a podium place. Rising to the occasion she opened up by throwing a new PB in round one and then improved this by a further metre launching the 500g javelin out to 34m.25 in the third round to win the silver medal.
Sunday afternoon saw sprinter Abbey Anson competing in the 100m. After winning her heat, Abbey ran a strong race in the final, which saw a very tight finish between the first three. Abbey came away with the silver medal having run 12.46s, her second fastest time to end a very satisfying weekend for all.
Felicity Dawes.
