Sat 19 May 2018, YDL Fixture 2, Wakefield Preston Harriers under 15 and under 13 team is on the brink of making history. With a second win against Sale and the other best athletics clubs of the North, Harriers only need to win one of their remaining two fixtures to topple Sale Harriers from their 10-year supremacy and become the Northern champions for the first time in the club’s 137-year history. After being runners up for 8 out of the last 10 years, Harriers should go to Bedford for the national finals in September as champions of the North.
Harriers never looked like being caught from the first event. 46 Harrier athletes set new lifetime best performances with many moving on their previous best set only a week before at the Lancashire County Championships. The domination in the field events by Harrier athletes was extraordinarily brilliant. They scored a massive 255.5 points against their closest rival Sale’s 182 points. This contributed to the final points score of 604.5 with Sale trailing 46.5 points behind in second.
The under 13 4 x 100m girls relay team of Ellie Sumner, Cerys Allen, Evie Noblett and Emily Rankin set a new club record with 52.42 seconds, which is the fastest time in the country this year. Not to be outdone Eleanor Noblet, Kianna Proctor, Lois Carroll and Alesha Azonubi, the under 15 4 x 100m girls relay team also set a club record and set the fastest time in the country with a performance of 50.23 seconds. The most surprising result of the day was the 4 x 100m under 15 boys team running 47.93 to produce the 10th fastest time in Britain this year when you consider that it was made up of a hurdler, a pole vaulter, a sprinter and a hammer thrower, these being Jacob Taylor, Harry Burrow, Harry Booth and Isaac Delaney respectively. Also recording the 10th fastest time in the country were the under 13 boys 4 x 100m team of Mark Josza, Jay Whiteside, Sebastian Chiarella and James Ince.
An impressive 51 points scored from a maximum 64 possible in the 8 hurdles races proved it to be the Harriers best track event. Hurdles wins for James Ince, Jacob Taylor and Harry Burrows and personal bests for Emily Rankin, Emma Tunstall, Corey Middleton and Isabel Caven were rewards for the athletes’ hard work. James Ince (under 13) continued his success with victories in the 200m and long jump. The multi-talented Cerys Allen, in her first year as an under 13, set a lifetime best in the 150 metres of 20.21 to win and followed it by producing the winning long jump of 4.34 metres, then finally placed 2nd in the High Jump with 1.25 metres.
A 10 second improvement for under 13 girl Anna Thompson set a lifetime best of 4.04:9 in the 1200 metres with Romilly Taylor in the same race slashing 18 seconds from her previous best posting 4.30:95. In the 1500m Grace Brown, Scarlett Sutton and Tom Barnes, all under 15, recorded personal bests of 5:00:65, 5:02:72 and 4:27:14 respectively. Shot was the most successful field event scoring 60 points from a maximum 64, closely followed by Hammer with 28 points from a maximum 32.
Match Result 1 PRESTON HARRIERS 604.5pts 2 Sale 558pts 3 West Cheshire 433.5pts 4 Leeds 426pts 5 Harrogate Harriers 423.5pts 6 Wirral AC 421.5pts