Seven Momentum Track Club athletes headed to Stratford on bank holiday Monday for the Stratford Speed GP — and it turned out to be a good day to make the trip.
The Stratford Speed GP is run by Newham and Essex Beagles at the London Marathon Community Track in Stratford, in the shadow of the London Stadium. The track has a reputation as one of the fastest in the UK — a hard Mondo surface with electronic blocks, photo finish timing and heats set up to give athletes the best possible wind conditions. For sprint athletes looking for a fast time in a competitive environment, it is one of the better open meets on the calendar. Athletes compete across two rounds of the 100m, a 200m and other distances, with heats organised by ability to maximise the quality of racing.
In the U16 women's races, Aurelia and Daisy both competed in round 1 of the 100m together in heat 12, finishing first and second — Aurelia in 12.01w and Daisy in 12.33w. Both are wind-assisted times given the conditions on the day, but the pace of the heat and the order they finished in tells its own story.
The 200m brought more MTC action. Aurelia placed second in heat 7 in 25.22, and heat 8 was essentially an internal club race — Daisy ran 25.72 to lead, with Emma second in 25.24 and Chloe third in 25.50. Three MTC athletes in the same 200m heat is the kind of thing that makes a team event out of an open meet. Emma had also run 12.11w in the 100m round 1 in heat 9. Chloe's fastest 100m on the day was 12.51, winning heat 15 in round 1.
On the senior side, Daniel ran two rounds of the 100m — 12.62 for second place in round 1, then came back to win his heat in round 2 in 12.69. George was the more consistent of the two across the day, winning his round 1 heat in 12.36 and matching that almost exactly with 12.37 in round 2. He also ran the 200m in 24.71 and won that heat too — three heats, three wins on the day.
Photos from the event were captured by the Stratford Speed GP team and the quality of the shots reflects the production level the event puts into its meetings — it is one of the better-photographed open meets in the country, helpfully giving us lots of content for our social media!
Well done to all seven athletes on their races 👏
Photos: @stratfordspeedgp
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