Birchfield Harriers clinch second spot in Youth Development League

Despite not having many athletes available to compete last Sunday at the second fixture of the Youth Development League U20's-U17's the Birchfield Harriers youngsters put in a stellar performance to finish second on the day on 684 match points.

With the sun bearing down over Abingdon Athletics Stadium, Oxfordshire, the rising stars of Birchfield shone brightly with many setting personal bests in what was many of the athlete's first visits to the stadium.

After a slow start to the day the Harriers found themselves fifth after the first set of scores. But falling short by just 34 points to Midlands rivals Rugby & Northampton Athletics club means that the Harriers are still in the overall lead by 8 points with two fixtures remaining.

With a fantastic total of 26 personal bests and 11 seasonal bests the Harriers were pushing hard but unfortunately they ran out of events to close in and steal the top spot away.

Team Avon and Notts AC were third on 596 and fourth on 510 respectively with Team Oxfordshire unable to turn the home advantage into anything other than fifth place finishing the day with 471 finally Swansea Harriers were left trailing with a total of 335 points.

Sam Meyler had an exceptionally busy day competing in three events. Meyler finished in top spot in both the high jump and the javelin. The 19 year old finished second in the shot-put event behind fellow Harriers teammate Niklas Aarre who set a new personal best in this event of 12.59m.

Ebony Wake also had a hectic day competing in four events. The teenager did not finish in her 100m race. However she made up for this by finishing first in the 200m race, the shot-put and the long jump where she set a new personal best of 6.00m

For the U17 age range Robert Beech finished third in his 800m race in a time of 2 minutes 19.9 seconds. But the youngster also competed in the U20 3000m where he finished in second with a superb personal best of 11 minutes 16.8 seconds.

Felicity Bee, who competes in the U17A category, continued her good form from the first fixture and set herself another personal best in both her high jump and javelin events. The 16 year olds 41.49 personal best is also now a new club record.

The Harriers juniors will be competing again in the penultimate fixture at Yate on 29th June.

By Rebecca James