Preston Harriers staged their inaugural Sportshall meeting at Preston College as an opener before the Lancashire Sportshall League begins. Ninety-six Harriers athletes from school years 3 to 10 entered the club only event. Many of the competing Harriers were Sportshall débutantes who were developing the skills and expertise needed in preparation for the first league fixture. 8-year-old Grace Delaney scored 3 wins in her 3 events to secure the year 3 girls’ title in her first ever athletic competition. Bayla-Rose Smart (school year 4), Cerys Allen (school year 5), Eleanor Noblet (school year 7) and year 9 athlete Lauren Tunstall all took their respective age titles with a maximum score from their 3 events.
Perhaps the most keenly contested age group was the school year 6 boys event, in which Sebastian Chiarella and James Ince faced one another. They both won an event each when they were not competing against one another. The 1 lap event was their first meeting. Seb managed to pip James by a tenth of a second, 10.3 sec to 10.4 sec. However James got his revenge in the 3 lap event when he recorded the fastest time of the day, 30.6 seconds. Consequently they both shared the year 6 boys title with 28 points each.
Title winners in the boys age groups, all with maximum 30 points from their 3 events, were Jay Whiteside (school year 5), Isaac Mabaya (school year 7) and Will Whiteside (school year 8). Isaac set the fastest 2 lap time of 19.6 sec. Maisie Saul leapt the furthest in the standing long jump recorded by any athlete of either sex with 2.28m. Ethan Hallas posted the best standing triple jump of the day with 7.35m. Taylor Jacob and Tiffany Xavier recorded the highest vertical jump for the boys and girls respectively of 49cm and 48cm. Isaac set 78 bounds, the greatest number of boys’ speed bounces with 76 the greatest for the girls by Maisie. Dominic Flanagan (school Year 6) and Emma Tunstall (school year 6) threw the soft javelin the furthest for their gender with 14.10m and 13.60m respectively. Dominic together with Cerys Allen (school year 5) had the greatest standing 1kg medicine ball push for their gender 6.25m and 5.75m respectively. 14-year-old David Homer put the shot 9.08m. the furthest for the boys while Lauren Tunstall heaved it 8.81m the longest female putt of the day. Harriers athletes produced many excellent performances which provided them with an excellent warm up before they start their campaign to retain their Lancashire Sportshall title at Blackpool later this month.