The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Four athletes from Nene Valley Harriers recorded five personal best (PB) performances between them at the Northern Open meeting at Sheffield.
This event is an early season indoor blast out and is often used to gain some speed work while the weather is too cold outside for the same level of quality.
The most prolific on the day was Megan Williams, who is competing in her first season as an under-15 this winter. She recorded three all-time PB performances in an event which was the first for her at an indoor stadium.
She started the day on the track, sprinting the 60m in a time of 9.18secs. Almost as soon as she had got across the line she moved over to the shot put and threw the heavier weight 6.17m, having moved up age groups.
Her long jump was delayed by an hour, having warmed up for the third time of the day she had to return to the stand and then start over. As a result she went into the event tired – but her second round jump of 4.20m was her best ever (indoors or outdoors).
Meanwhile, Rosie Fresen was competing in the pole vault. Coming in at a low height of 2.20m, she failed her first attempt at 2.40m.
This kicked her into action and she cleared the next heights almost flawlessly – and by big margins. She cleared the bar at 3.00m by a margin suggesting that a PB would be on the cards, but unfortunately could not get over the psychological barriers she suffered at the next height.
This was still an indoor PB for Fresen and showed her exceptional progress over the last 12 months.
The male side of the club’s strength was literally shown by Rob Shaw, who was clearly the top performer in the men’s shot put – throwing a distance of 14.90m as he dominated from the off.
Sean Reidy came to Sheffield in order to use it for additional training – and had, in his own words, an “average day”. Despite his description, he did run a very tight race in the 60m as five athletes crossed the line within about 0.1s. Reidy’s time of 7.83secs was another PB.
Later on in the day he was out on the banked part of the track competing in the men’s 1,000m.
That was an unusual distance, although he has been known to compete in the 800m instead of the 400m hurdles in which he specialises. He started the race as most sprinters do when competing over-distance – too slow.
But it was clear to the rest of the field that he had not committed as he came through well over the last two laps. He closed on the leaders later in the race, but didn’t have enough time to catch the rest as he clocked 2.47.40mins.
Several more Harriers are expected to return to indoor action over the coming weeks.
