Some of you will know Will Haw. Will is our 800m specialist who headed out to Michigan last year on an athletics scholarship at Northwood University. He has been competing for Northwood in one of the toughest NCAA Division II conferences in the country and has just finished his first ever indoor track season. He sends this update from the Great Midwest.
His recurring time for the 800 indoors this season has been 1:52. He ran 1:52 five times this season and says he’s happy with the consistency. Although Will being Will, he also said he would have liked to go a bit faster.
At the conference championships he was part of the Northwood Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team that came second overall. For those of you not familiar with the DMR, it’s a team relay where four athletes each run a different middle distance leg (1200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m) combining speed with endurance across the squad. In the context of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), second place is a great result.
Individually, Will finished 4th in the 800, just behind three athletes who went on to qualify for the nationals, all of them capable of running 1:48. He knows who they are and what they are capable of and has already got his eye on them for the outdoor season.
It’s worth saying that indoors is genuinely more challenging for Will than most. He’s a tall runner, and indoor tracks are tight, banked, and unforgiving on athletes with longer strides. Getting five consistent 1:52s in those conditions in his first ever indoor campaign is something to be proud of.
As for what it’s actually like over there in the USA, Will can’t recommend it enough. The facilities are world class, the support systems around the athletes are serious, and the travel and experiences that come with the scholarship are, in his words, “leaps and bounds above anything in the UK system.” He’d recommend it to anyone thinking about that route.
Outdoor season is next. Those 1:48 lads need to watch out for Will.
