Mission accomplished
Thanks to a PB at the 1500m Night at Wimbledon Park on 29 May Charlie Wyllie has received an invitation to the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester on 29/30 June, where he will join sprinter Chad Miller, who goes in the 200m, as the best of the best compete for national titles and places on the team for the Paris Olympics.
Many a Club athlete knows the angst of trying to nail a qualification time, whether it is for the English Schools or at International level, often trekking around the country hoping for all the stars to align in the perfect race before the window of opportunity closes.
Charlie's quest for the automatic qualification time of 3:44.00 for the UKA Championships began to gather momentum at the BMC Grand Prix World Athletics Challenger meeting at SportCity in Manchester on 25 May, where he whittled down his previous best to 3:45.24.
It was a time which was good enough to propel him from 6th to 3rd on the Club's all time ranking list. Only Mike Beevor, who ran 3:43.6 in 1969, and HW Chairman Dave Clarke, who posted 3:39.27 at the Bislett Games in 1982, now sit above him.
The Manchester race left him 'super-happy with the PB', but sure that he had more to give. 'The conditions were good, it was pretty still and I sat in as the pacemaker took us through in around 1.58', he says, 'but when he pulled off, the pace dropped on lap three and I got a bit boxed in and had nowhere to go. Nevertheless he kicked hard for home over the last 250m to finish third.
His next opportunity arrived on home ground at Wimbledon Park, where he lined up for the last race of the night alongside Charlie Eastaugh, the last athlete to represent the Club in the 1500m at the UK Athletics Championships, when he qualified for the Indoor event in Birmingham in 2022.
'The plan again was to try to sit in again and hope for a quick race. I got out well early and positioned myself close to the front', he says. 'Once the pacer dropped out I decided to hit the front with 600m to go.' He stretched the lead to around 5 metres, and with Club-mates roaring their support along the finishing straight, he says, 'I knew the time was still in reach and kicked hard again, but my legs finally started to fade in the final 50m'. Although he held on for the win, notching up yet another PB, the clock stopped at of 3:44.88, agonisingly close to the required time.
His last chance, or so he thought, was the BMC Grand Prix World Athletics Challenger meeting at Watford three days later. In a loaded field he initially looked strong, but when Osian Perrin of Welsh club Menai stretched out the field with a devastating break to take the win in 3:39.20 for once Charlie had little left, but still finished in 03:44.98.
'I just felt a bit fatigued going into the race, and got the tactics a little wrong', he admits. Never say never, though, and in the shake up of acceptances and dropouts for the British Championships, his time at Wimbledon Park has proved good enough for him to make the star-studded start list in Manchester.
Despite finishing outside his PB of 3:45.45 Charlie Eastaugh was nevertheless happy to clock 3:49.50 for sixth in his first race over the distance this season. And on a night of 140 PBs across the 15 races, there was a standout performance by U15 Isabella Harrison, continuing her amazing run of achievements across all the middle distance events. She recorded 4:29.24, a new U15 Club record and the second fastest of her age group in the UK this year so far.
Below: Charlie with team-mates Alex Sutton, Charlie Eastaugh and coach Keith Scofield after the 1500m at Wimbledon Park which proved to be his ticket to Birmingham
High-flyers
On 18 May a handful of Club athletes got their first taste of the fabulous festival of running that is the Night of 10,000m PBs hosted by Highgate Harriers on their Parliament Hill track. The event has passed into modern day legend, with its cauldron of noise, music, circus acts, beer tents and non-stop entertainment. Most importantly, however, it is where the world's elite come to race as the atmosphere builds up to the final race of the night – this year the Olympic Qualifiers.
In his first experience of a 10,000m on the track, Andrew Penney clocked 30:17.85 for 15th place in Race 5. The event also featured a series of high-class junior invitational 800m races in which Thomas Whorton and Theo Creed finished sixth and eighth in the U15 Boys race, with a PB of 2:07.52 for Theo.
In the U15 Girls race Isabella Harrison was third, in a PB of 2:12.37, while brother Max, competing in the U13 Boys race was fourth in 2:18.22.
Below: the Club's youngsters loved their first time in the circus atmosphere of the Night of the 10,000m PBs.
Record Breakers
Congratulations to the U17 Men's team of Joshua Sarkodee, Chezray Cammock, Javon Blake and
Adam Ofeimum (below) who set a new Club U17 record for the 4 x 100m Relay at the South London Network Sprint and Relay Meeting at Tooting Bec on 25 May.
In a fight to the finish against the winning U20 HW team of Conor Kelly, Joshua Martin, Omari Koroma and Shawn Bell (who clocked 42.82), they crossed the line a whisker behind, in 43.23, a time good enough to top the Club Ranking list, leap-frogging the team which represented HW in the Club Connect Relays at the Diamond League meeting at the London Stadium last summer.
