Some of the top endurance runners from our Junior section couldn’t resist the pull of a 3000m track race last weekend. Several of our U15’s and U17’s group travelled to Morpeth to compete in a special NECAA Open Meeting and take on some of the North East’s best young athletes .
The 3k race was split into four heats of mixed age group/gender, with a total of 37 athletes taking part, including 6 wearing the blue and white of DHAC. They’ve all had plenty of experience over this distance at cross country, but for some, this was their first 3k track race. This is how things went….
Heat 1
First up we had Louis Brett and Macy Kelly, both U15’s and the two youngest athletes in this heat . This was Louis’ first attempt at this distance on the track and what an excellent job he made of it; he finished in 2nd place in a time of 10:44.20, beating several U17’s in the process. The only time Macy had run a track 3k before today was in June 2019, so she was hoping to improve on her time from then; which she did with ease! She smashed her PB by over 30 seconds with a new best of 11:59.68 to take 6th place. A fantastic effort from both, well done!
Heat 2
Three of our top young athletes in this one; Harry Wilson and Marissa Boon, both U17’s and Alex Boyer, U15. Harry is now one of our most experienced junior athletes so he’s got a few 3k’s under his belt now, but this was the fastest of them all! He had a cracking race and knocked exactly one minute off his previous best to take 2nd place with a new PB of 9:59.7. We’ve got used to seeing impressive performances from Alex, who’s still in his first year at U15. This was his first track 3k as well and he ran like a pro, finishing just a fraction of a second behind Harry to take 3rd place in 10:00.16. Marissa has only been at DHAC a couple of years, but she’s certainly made her mark and has shown us she’s got what it takes with a string of impressive performances. She’s still a Year 1 U17 and up against some tough competition today, including a couple of seniors, but she ran her first track 3k very well, setting herself a new time of 10:50.96 in 9th place.
Heat 3
Heat 3 was mixed age groups again, but this time it was an all male race. It turned out to be a quicker pace than the first two heats but our U15 Harrier, Harry Lyons certainly managed to keep up with proceedings! Again, he’s a Year 1 U15 running his first track 3k race, but his relative lack of experience didn’t show. He may have finished 9th in the heat, but as the youngest athlete, finishing in 9:58.79 is an outstanding achievement, and the fastest of all our juniors today. Well done Harry!
With the mixed age group/gender races the placings in the heats are irrelevant really. Below are the overall results by category so you can easily see how our juniors faired against their counterparts. I’m sure you’ll agree they were all tremendous! Well done everyone!
