ON what was the hottest day of the year so far, Harlow’s young athletes headed down to Barnet for the fourth round of the Eastern Young Athlete’s League. At this stage only the overall result can be reported upon. A computer issue meant that names could not be added to the spreadsheet. The match will need to be painstakingly constructed to ensure names and performances correspond; a process that is underway at the time of writing. Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers won the fixture and Harlow were fifth by just eleven points.

With one fixture remaining, Harlow are in twentieth place out of twenty-six teams. Whilst this may appear quite lowly, it represents the highest placing for the young athletes for five years.

Match Result: SBH 798, Havering 783, Bedford 605, Nene Valley 382 HARLOW 371, HAWCS 179 and Luton 162

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Meanwhile, a number of athletes were out at individual events and representing other clubs as second-claim athletes.

Grace Iyinbor competed in the South Eastern Counties combined events championships in Oxford. She was ninth overall from twenty-seven entrants. She jumped 4.15m in the Long Jump, ran the 75m Hurdles in 12.39s and produced a PB of 8.90m in the Shot. She managed 1.38m in the High Jump, just 2cms from her PB height and finished the day with an 800m run in 2.48.63 minutes. All the scores combined for a points total of 2401, which is her best haul yet for a multi-event competition.

Up at Bedford Leo Chashchin was representing Enfield and Shemar Boldizsar was representing Southend at the British Athletics League Match. Chashchin cleared the opening height of 1.50m in the High Jump. He is capable of more but was focusing on the Pole Vault and took only one jump for a point for his adopted club. In this event he equalled his own club record of 3.80m before rounding his day off in the Long Jump. He improved his PB considerably by jumping 6.38m, adding 26 cms to his best.

Boldizsar ran both the 100m and 200m and produced a PB time of 10.68s in the 100m and followed this up with a best-equalling 21.36s in the 200m. He still awaits news from the Junior Selection Panel regarding a place in the Under 20 team at the World Junior Championships.