Young Dacorum & Tring AC athletes on top form at Herts Minithon

Edward Hopper started his afternoon with a PB of 1:40m to win the Year 8 boys’ high jump, followed by PBs in the long jump (4.27m – third) and 100m (14.55s – third).

Thomas Fisher finished second in Year 8 long jump with a PB of 4.55m, and fourth in the high jump with a PB of 1.35m. He also clocked 15.1s in his first 80m hurdles race.

Josiah Barker was second in the Year 8 hurdles with a time of 13.72s and he also managed 4.13m in the long jump.

Daniel Stace, meanwhile, had a fantastic day, smashing his PB to win the Year 7 long jump with 3.89m.

Daniel then got second in the 200m with 31.62s and treated spectators to a gripping 800m race where he eventually took second place in a time of 2:51.68.

At the end of the day, overall gold medals were awarded to Edward and Daniel, while Thomas won an overall silver medal.

In other track and field news, U13 girl Tia Stonehouse competed in her very first indoor pentathlon at Lee Valley, scoring two new club records.

She ran her very first 60m hurdles race, finishing in 11.37s for a new U13 club record, followed by new PBs of 1.27m in the high jump and 6.15m in shot put.

She then equalled her long jump PB of 4.29m, before running 3:00.73 in the 800m for an overall points total of 1,871 – fully 230 points more than the previous U13 club record.

Elsewhere, the Dacorum & Tring middle distance squad finished the cross country season in style, picking up one outright win and seven top-10 finishes in the North West London League held at Wormwood Scrubs.

Kristian Imroth, running in the U13 boys’ age group, won his race outright in a time of 9:49, crossing the line a full 38 seconds ahead of the second-placed finisher.

Having won three of the five races in the five-event league, Kristian was awarded the trophy for topping the U13 boys’ points table.

Six other athletes picked up top-10 placings – starting with Olivia Edwards in the U11 girls’ race over 1,200m. She claimed a fantastic fifth spot, only 15 seconds off first place, despite taking on girls a full year older than herself.

Next up were the U13 girls and U11 boys, who ran together over a 2,000m course. Maddie Perry finished in 7:57, fast enough for seventh overall after a tight sprint finish, with Indira Patel just behind in ninth in 8:00.

Together, the two girls combined for fourth-fastest team out of 10.

For the U11 boys, Jamie Bailey was suffering from a severe cold but still managed to finish a brave 11th overall out of 51 boys.

The U15 girls and U13 boys ran together over 2,800m, with Grace Birdseye finishing ninth in 11:26.

Freddie Truman-Williams, meanwhile, finished eighth with a time of 10.54. Together with Kristian’s first place, the two boys finished fifth in the team standings.

In the U17 men’s race over 4,700m, Rhys Rowlands put in a strong run to finish sixth in a time of 17:49.