Young Harriers end season with a narrow victory

In was a tight affair at Crawley’s K2 Leisure Centre as Worthing sealed victory by just seven points. They finished on 485, ahead of second-placed Bexley’s 478 and South London’s 444.

The results means Harriers finish their league campaign in fourth position overall out of nine clubs.

Worthing’s young athletes team manager Steve Spinner said: “ This is my last competition with Harriers as a team manager and coach and it’s a great way to end my time with Harriers.

“This was another great result that shows the determination of our young under-13, under-15 and under-17 athletes and the fantastic team spirit amongst the youngsters.

“It was a nail-biting finish with everything resting on the relay results. We were lacking in under-13 boys with only one turning up and to pull off this result was a credit to the team.”

There were some fine individual results as under-13 Emily Marchant finished first in the 70m hurdles with 13.2sec, Erin Bateman won the 800m in 2mins 37.2sec and sprinter Phoebe Oborne won both her 75m and 150m races in 10.5 and 21.2.

Under-15 long jumper Anna Short won athlete-of-the-match with a superb jump of 5.20m to put her into the top 20 rankings in the country. Under-15 Sam Charlwood is showing promise as a 400m runner and finished second in 56.3sec, while Miranda Garratt gained maximum points for the club with a discus throw of 21.58m.

Under-17 Charlie Baldwin, who has only been training with Harriers for a few months, won significant points for the club by running a creditable 400m hurdles to win in 61.3sec. He then ran the 400m in 54.3sec and ran the fourth leg in the 4x400m relay.

Hammer throwers Woody Cox (under-15) and Sophie Williams (under-17) won their competitions with throws of 50.74m and 30.30m respectively.