As we approach the end of track and field season, we had junior athletes at The Tartan Games and the England Athletics National Championship this weekend.
In other news, we’d like to thank Adam Mitchell for his time and effort over several years as a Junior coach at the club. Adam is looking to hang up his whistle as track season reaches its conclusion and we wish him all the best for the future.
Tartan Games
We had 8 of our Junior athletes in end of season action (Plus Sarah Johnson as the one senior member to take part!) at a very wet Tartan Games @ Gateshead Stadium on Sunday. Many races were run in torrential rain, with one particular heavy downpour causing a slight delay to proceedings!
Charlie and Isabelle Holdcroft both took on the 100m and 200m sprints and both came away with impressive PB’s in the 100m. Isabelle ran 14.42 and Charlie 12.11. Both finishing 4th out of 5 competitors. Isabelle was a few seconds outside her PB in the 200m running 31.68 and Charlie came within 0.17 of his PB, finishing 2nd in 24.88.
Sarah and Beth Johnson took on the sprint hurdles with Sarah 2nd in the 200mH in an Season’s Best time of 34.00 whilst in 70mH, Beth finished 5th of 7 competitors in 14 seconds. Beth doubled up on the day to achieve an excellent end of season PB in the Long Jump, achieving her best of 3.79m.
We had 2 athletes in the mixed U13 800m race with Monty Bowden setting an impressive new PB of 2:33.51, finishing 2nd overall but 1st Boy. This bettered his previous best from April’s Kieran Maxwell Open by just over 4 seconds. Sasha Patterson was 4th Girl from 7 runners in a time of 2:44.25.
The mixed U15 Mile race saw us provide 3 of the 7 competitors. Matthew Foster finished 3rd of 5 Boys in 5:16.21, with the other 4 boys all 2nd year U15 athletes. Sisters Matilda and Charlotte Owens were the only girls in the race, so had 1st and 2nd positions sewn up before the race started! Matilda came out on top, running 5:48.71 with Charlotte finishing in 6:03.93. Driving rain throughout the races made conditions difficult for fast times, but at least it was nice and cool!
England Athletics U15/U17 National Championships
We had 5 of our Junior athletes at the National Track and Field Championships last weekend in Birmingham. An event that brings together the best U15 and U17 athletes in the country, together with the champions of the Ireland National Competition as guests.
It’s no mean feat to qualify for these championships, so Hugo, Lottie, Tori, Thomas and Izzy should be extremely proud of their achievements just to get that far. To have the experience of a National competition under their belt will be an invaluable learning tool for their future in Athletics.
Hugo Douglas-Reeves has had a fantastic season in the the sprint hurdles despite being relatively new to the event, and that continued at the weekend. Hugo also competed in the 300m as a secondary event and ran a superb PB of 38.57 (Down from 39.24) to finish 18th out of 26 athletes.
On to the 80m Hurdles and Hugo had a qualifying round first up. He finished a superb 3rd after a photo finish in 11.91 after throwing himself across the line, to grab an automatic qualifying spot for the final. He then improved his time in the final to 11.88 (0.15 outside his PB) to finish 5th overall (Hugo tells us he’s 4th in England as an Irish guest finished ahead of him!). An excellent weekend and season for Hugo as he begins to think about Winter training and indoor competition.
Izabella Edinboro was competing in the 300m where she managed to finish in an excellent 13th overall from the 23 competing athletes. Her time of 43.02 was just 1 second outside her PB. Izzy has had her busiest season so far, competing in every NEYDL fixture, several NEGP’s and all of the school championships and finals.
Tori Buckley took on the 300m Hurdles in a very competitive field. She finished 7th in her heat, 2.76 seconds outside her PB of 47.44. Even a PB time would have only moved her 2 places higher in the heat, showing the immense competition at these national finals. Tori was also a mainstay of NEYDL and started her long season indoors in January, so enjoy a well deserved rest before pushing on to next year!
Thomas Hill, our resident Pole Vault expert, qualified for the national finals with a best jump and PB of 3.70m this year, but unfortunately he no heighted at his opening height on the day. This can happen, especially in the vertical jumps and although Thomas will be disappointed, it will be a good experience for him going forward and we’re sure he’ll have learned a lot from it.
Our final competitor was Lottie Graves in the Shot Put. Lottie finished 15th overall with a throw of 9.45m, down on her PB of 10.70m achieved this season, but again, a fantastic achievement just to qualify and great experience to compete against the best in the country.
I’m sure we’ll see these athletes and more appear at such events in the future, as our Junior section go from strength to strength.
