Sat 21 July 2018, Bebington, Lower Youth Development League Preston Harriers were crowned champions of the Northern Premier Lower Youth Development League for the first time in their history at Bebington. They broke Sale’s 10-year reign as Northern champions. Sale were national champions last year and also qualify for this year’s national final as runners up. Harriers are preparing for the national final to be held at Bedford in September with a real chance of finishing higher than last year’s 6th position.
The match finished on a high note with the under 13 girls 4 x 100m team of Ellie Sumner, Cerys Allen, Evie Noblett and Emily Rankin setting a new league record of 52.0 seconds, beating the old record, which had stood since 2015, by 0.2 seconds. Previously Cerys had set a new club long jump record of 4.79 metres in the under 13 girls age group. Emily Rankin set lifetime bests in the 75 metres hurdles and the flat 75 metres of 11.3 and 10.1 respectively. Emma Tunstall ran 12.5 secs. to post a personal best in the 75 metres hurdles. Also in the under 13 girls, Isabella Buraimo set new marks in the javelin and shot, while Ellie Sumner (75m) & Megan Reynolds (800m) ran new personal bests.
Recently joined sprint star James Clark ran 13.1 secs to finish 2nd in the under 13 boys’ 100m race. Sebastian Chiarella equalled his personal best over the same distance. Further lifetime bests in the under 13 boys age group were recorded by Jack Winstanley (800m, 2.48.5), and Jenson Warren and William Moorhouse in the 1500m (5.07.0 and 5.38.9 respectively). Twelve-year-old throws specialist Harrison Kiley is showing his versatility with wins in the high jump and shot and a second in the javelin.
In the under 15 girls age group the following recorded personal bests: Alesha Azonubi (100m), Amani Valli-Carter (300m), Lois Carroll (75 m hurdles), Heather Taylor-Harling (long jump), Tamalyn Dickinson (hammer) and Molly Parkinson (javelin).
Fourteen-year-old throws duo Theo Bishop and James Lupton had an outstanding day when both set lifetime bests in 2 events, Theo in the Hammer (31.24m) and the shot (12.44m), and James in the hammer (34.94m) and javelin (32.91m). Isaac Delaney hurled the discus to a new mark of 29.52m in the boys under 15 age group. In the same age group sprinter Archie Dowds set personal bests in both the 100m (11.9 secs) and the 200m (24.3 secs). Harry Booth equalled his lifetime best in the 100m of 12.4 secs. and Joshua Best ran a new lifetime best of 41.9 secs in the 300m. Ben Withers, running the 300m for the first time, posted a time of 42.8secs. Josef Wilson set another personal best of 2.10.2 in the 800m, his third improvement in 4 races. Harriers finished 28.5 points ahead of Sale, 588 to 559.5 points in the match. This gave Harriers the 4th successive win over Sale.
In the Schools International, sixteen-year-old Harriers hurdle star Jasmine Jolly, representing English Schools, had a gold medal run in the 300m hurdles in Grangemouth, Scotland, recording 42.21 seconds.