HARLOW’S young athletes ended the indoor season in fine style over the weekend. Sophie Bridle and Millie Upton were part of the Essex County Sports Hall squad, that competed at UEA in Norwich on Saturday.

Millie ran in the U15 squad and ran the Two-Lap Race in a time of 26.6s. Later she took part in the Speed Bounce and achieved 69 in the allotted time. Her day ended with a jump of 2.17m in the Standing Long Jump. She scored 69 points for the team.

In the U13 events, Sophie took part in the 4-Lap race and the shot. She was third in the 4-Lap race in a time of 55.5s and seventh in the shot with a distance of 6.11m. She contributed 44 points to the team effort. The aggregate score of the two age groups left Essex in second place overall.

On Sunday, Lee Valley hosted its final indoor event for U13 and U15 athletes and alongside individual events they ran a pentathlon. In the U13s Olivia Williams made her debut and Mia Rowan competed in her first pentathlon.

Olivia ran the 60m in a time of 9.32s: a very good performance for a first year U13. She followed this up with 31.65s in the 200m.

Mia began well in the pentathlon by recording a new PB in the 60m hurdles of 10.61s. She was a fraction down on her best in the Shot and her best effort was 3.74m. She then jumped a new PB in the High Jump of 1.14m. The afternoon events began with Long Jump in which she added a massive 49 cm to her PB, her new mark now stands at 3.57m. Her day ended with the 800m which she had not run before; she ran a very decent 2.53.75 mins. She achieved a points total of 1628 points for twelfth place.

There were three entrants in the U15 events and all in the sprints: Abigail Dawson set a new PB of 31.86s in the 200m and Elliott Butcher also ran a new PB of 26.45s. Marley Sarling ran 25.05s to complete Harlow’s involvement in this event.

Marley saved his best performance for the 60m. He broke his own club indoor record in a time of 7.65s. His time meant that he ended the indoor season ranked 44 in the country.

The outdoor season also got underway on Sunday, with The Danny Mullane Memorial Open at Chelmsford. James Petty ran the 200m and jumped in the Long Jump. His 200m time of 24.9s was a good opening to the outdoor season and only just outside his indoor best. He jumped impressively in the Long Jump, adding 77 centimetres to his old mark: his new PB stands at 4.94m.

Millie Upton summoned up the energy to compete again on Sunday. She ran a new PB of 15.1 in the 100m, but a knee injury forced her to withdraw from the Long Jump some way down from her best.

After the weekend club chair Steve Lott said; “Well done to all of our young athletes and especially to Millie and Sophie for earning their Essex vests. I hope that it will inspire others to aim for county recognition with the outdoor season just about to start.”

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