Northern Indoor Championships

 Under 13’s & Under 15’s

Sunday 7^th February 2016

The 2016 Northern Indoor Championships for athletes in the under 13 and under 15 age categories, were staged at the English Institute of Sports Stadium in Sheffield, on Sunday the 7^th of February, and 11 of Kingston’s talented junior’s made the journey across to South Yorkshire to compete at their first major Championship meeting of the year.

There were many excellent performances from the youngsters and plenty of new PB’s were set on the day, but pride of place must go to our medal winners, Shaun Kerry, Holly Adams, and Sam Croney.

Shaun Kerry who is the reigning under 15 Northern hammer champion, which is purely an outdoor event, added the indoor shot title, a new PB of 12.40m, and another gold medal to his growing collection of trophies.

12 year old Holly Adams with only one year of competition behind her, was appearing at her first major Championship event and she put a further 15 centimetres on her PB, which now stands at 8.78m, to take the gold medal in the under 13’s shot. Holly has made excellent progress in the last few months and this medal was ample reward for all her hard work.

Also at his first major Championship event was 13 year old hurdler Sam Croney, who brought a bronze medal and new PB of 9.47s, back home with him, from the Under 15’s 60 metres hurdles.

The Championship performances of all the other Kingston athletes at Sheffield are as follows:-

Under 15’s

14 year old Tommy Murray was not only at his first championship meeting, but was making his competitive debut for the club and he should be very proud of his efforts. He went in heat 4 of the 200 metres sprints, where he took 4^th place and ran a new PB of 27.14s. Further action came in the long jump final where another new PB of 4.67m, gave him an 11^th place finish.

Anthony Mould was making only his second competitive appearance in the Kingston vest and he took 10^th place in the shot final with a throw of 6.31m, which was a new PB.

In addition to the hurdles event Sam Croney also competed in the 60 metres sprints, where a new PB of 8.05s in the first heat took him into the semi finals, but his time of 8.15s in semi final 3 was not enough to get him a place in the final.

Becky Chivers and Kate Huntington were both drawn in qualifying group ‘B’ in the women’s shot competition, with Becky winning the group and throwing a new PB of 8.02m, and Kate also pulling out a new PB of 6.74m, in 9^th place. Unfortunately neither of the girls efforts were enough to get them into the final.

Kate Huntington was in further action in both the 60 metres and the 200 metres sprints. She ran in heat 1 of the 60 metres taking 5^th place in a time of 8.62s, and in the 200 metres she went in heat 5, claiming 3^rd place with a run of 29.56s.

Christina Bradford made her competitive debut for Kingston at these Championships, where she ran in heat 2 of the 60 metres sprints. She finished in 8^th place in the race and set herself a new PB of 9.08s.

Under 13’s

This was the first outing as an under 13 athlete for Alex Grant, who has been a member of our junior group since the 2013 track & field season, and marked his debut at a major Championship event. Alex ran in heat 1 of the 60 metres sprints, taking 5^th place and running a time of 9.62s. He was also in competition in the long jump final, where a season’s best effort of 3.61m, gave him an 8^th place finish.

Alex Chivers has been with our junior training group since the summer of 2014, and he made his bow at a major Championship’s at this meeting, where he was in action in both the long jump and the shot finals. The long jump saw Alex put in a season’s best effort of 2.73m, for a 9^th place finish, and in the shot final a throw of 4.27m gave him 4^th place.

Hermione Keyworth is in her second year with Kingston and she been looking good in recent indoor open events. She made her Championship bow at this meeting, where she ran in both the 60 metres and 200 metres sprints. She went in heat 4 of the 60 metres where she took 3^rd place and posted a time of 9.02s. Hermione was drawn in heat 1 of the 200 metres and ran a new PB of 28.88s which gave her 2^nd place in the race and semi final qualification. A run of 29.61s in semi final 3 saw her finish 3^rd in the race but the time was not enough to get her into the final.