Race rounds off superb season with heptathlon silver

Athletics ace Emily Race, of Worksop Harriers, rounded off the most successful season of her career so far with a silver medal in the heptathlon final of the English Schools Championships at Bedford.
Heptathlon ace Emily Race at the English Schools Athletics Championships in Bedford.Heptathlon ace Emily Race at the English Schools Athletics Championships in Bedford.
Heptathlon ace Emily Race at the English Schools Athletics Championships in Bedford.

Teeanager Race, who competes in the U20 age group, was always placed in the top three and even led the event after day one.

This followed personal-best performances in the 100m hurdles, posting a time of 14.06 seconds, and shot put (11.64 metres), combined with solid efforts in both the high jump (1.71 metres) and 200m (26.62 seconds).

Day two saw Race drop to third spot after a 5.42-metre long jump, but she leapt back into second with a 32.62-metre javelin throw and there she remained after clocking a time of two minutes, 28 seconds in a highly competitive 800m. She set a new personal-best score for the heptahlon of 5,055 points.

In her first year as an U20 competitor, the Worksop star has also won four national championships, plus a bronze heptathlon medal in the British Championships.

Her high jump expolits have gained her international recognition at three different levels as she competed for England and Great Britain teams.

Meanwhile, a Worksop Harriers teammate, talented U17 athlete Savannah Storey, jumped over five metres for the first time in her career in the long jump at the Doncaster Open Meeting.

Storey, who recorded a massive 5.16 metres, is a training partner of Race and another youngster with a very bright future.

To wrap up a successful spell for the club, over-50 veteran Christopher Duncan finished a very creditable 23rd, out of 3,623 competitors, in the Sheffield 10K. Duncan won his age category in a new personal-best time of 37 minutes, 28 seconds, despite a tough, hilly course.