Kathy did a good job snapping photos of Claire racing the 300 JV hurdles at the county meet at Mill Creek. Claire did an even better job winning it.

After the Saturday prelims that narrowed the field from 32 down to the top 8, Claire knew she would have some stiff competition. For the Monday finals, I was glad to see she was in lane 4, because that meant 4 girls (lanes 4 – 8) would line up staggered ahead of her and 3 would line up behind her. In a 300, there is only one bend, and the girls are staggered about 10 feet apart to allow for the advantage the inner lanes have over the outer. I think it helps Claire to have some competition to catch.

In the prelim race, Claire just shot down the first straight away and passed all of the girls ahead of her before the bend, finishing with a big lead, even though she took the last stretch slower than her start. In the finals, she started strong and finished strong. You can see by the time she came around the bend, which is about 2/3 of the race, she had a good lead.

See the whole sequence here.

Way to go Claire!