Northern Indoor Championships

Under 15’s and under 13’s

E.I.S. Stadium, Sheffield – Sunday 4^th February 2018

Seven of Kingston upon Hull AC’s junior athletes competed at the under 15’s and under 13’s Northern Indoor Championship meeting which was held at the English Institute of Sports stadium in Sheffield.

Under 15’s

Holly Adams made her championship and club debut aged 11 years at the 2015 Northern indoor event where she was competing against athletes at least a year and some two years older than herself. She saw action in the 60 metre sprints as well as the long jump and finished 10^th in the shot putt final. She was back again in 2016, this time however she was a shot putter and a good one at that, taking the shot gold medal. A year later she was the shot silver medallist and at this February’s championships she secured the bronze medal with a season’s best throw of 10.76 metres. Her focus now is on the track & field season which begins in April.

Due to the huge entry in the under 15 girls sprints Daisy Logan, who is equally at home at both 60m & 200m, had a difficult decision to make before even stepping onto the track. With 4 rounds programmed for the 200m & 3 for the 60m doubling up was not practical so eventually Daisy opted for the shorter race. It proved to be a wise choice as she produced 3 outstanding runs throughout the afternoon. A personal best of 8.19 sec in the heat saw her safely qualify for the semi final where she was only marginally slower when finishing 2^nd in 8.21 sec to progress to the final just 40 minutes later. Despite the short recovery Daisy produced her second personal best of the day, stopping the clock at 8.17 sec for 5^th place, an agonising 0.08 sec away from a medal. Daisy can now look forward to the England Athletics Indoor Championships later in the month. With the event being staged over 2 days she will have the opportunity to take on both the 60m & 200m before beginning her preparations for the outdoor season.

Jack Singleton competed in the 60 and 200 metre sprint races as well as his specialist event the 60 metre hurdles. The 60 metres sprints saw him drawn in the 4^th heat where his run of 8.47 sec just one tenth of a second outside his PB was not enough to see him progress to the final. He was drawn in the 2^nd of the 200 metres sprint heats where he took a 4^th place finish running a new PB of 26.91 sec clipping 1.62 sec off his previous best time, but once again he missed out on an appearance in the final. In the 60 metres hurdles competition he was drawn in the first heat and an excellent run, a new PB of 9.83 sec saw him take 3^rd place and qualify for the final knocking a quarter of a second off his old best mark. The final of the 60 metres hurdles saw him finishing in 5^th place and posting a time of 9.90 sec.

Emilia Russell was making her Northern Championships debut at this meeting, she is a good all round athlete who has competed for the junior team for the last three years In their UK Youth Development League matches. She entered for the 200 metres sprints and also the long jump and shot competitions. There were eight heats in the 200 metres with a total of 47 athletes battling to qualify for the next round across all of the heats. Emilia was drawn in the fifth heat where she ran a new PB of 29.69 sec clipping 0.42 of a second off her old best which was not enough to progress to the next round of races. The shot competition saw her collect another new PB with her throw of 8.10 metres, 78 centimetres past her old mark for an 11^th place finish, whilst the long jump saw her put in a seasons best performance of 3.84 metres which put her in the lower middle positions.

Under 13’s

Libby Hakney made her club debut last April at the 2017 Kingston Spring Open meeting where she was a 6^th place finisher in the 150 metres final. She made good progress over the coming months, so much so that she was selected to represent the junior team, competing in two UK Youth Development league meetings. This meeting saw her making her Northern Championships debut, where she in action in the under 13 girls 60 metres and 200 metres competitions. She was drawn to race in the fourth heat of the 60 metres where her run of 9.05 sec, 2 tenths of a second outside her PB saw her take 3^rd place and secure a spot in the semi finals. She was drawn in the second of the semi final races where she took another 3^rd place finish, running a new PB of 8.85 sec shaving 0.18 of a second off her previous best and qualified for the 60 metres final. In the final she put in another good run of 9.00 sec which gave her an 8^th place finish. Libby’s 200 metres campaign began in heat three where she took 3^rd place running a new PB of 29.69 sec, 0.61 of a second off her previous best which put her into her second semi final of the day. She ran in the 2^nd of the semi final races putting in another good effort of 29.74 sec for an 8^th place finish in the race. She can be very proud of her performances at her first major championship meeting.

Lydia Moore made her club debut at the 2016 County Championships where she competed in the 150 metres sprints and 600 metres race. 2017 saw her and training partner Izzy Watts taking on a wider range of events, javelin, shot, long jump and middle distance and they were both called into the junior team for league competitions. In August last year Lydia and Izzy competed in their first triathlon at the Yorkshire Combined Events championships at Cudworth. Both girls made their Northern championship debut appearances at this meeting, where Lydia Moore was in action in the 200 metres and long jump and was joined in the shot by Izzy Watts. The 200 metres sprints saw Lydia Moore seeded to run in heat four where she ran a new PB of 32.97 sec knocking 2.33 seconds of her previous best but it was not enough to see her progress further. The long jump saw her set another new PB adding 16 centimetres to her previous best with a leap of 3.53 metres. They went head to head in the shot where Izzy Watts took 6^th place with a new PB of 7.10 metres 45 centimetres past her old mark and a new PB of 6.83 metres an increase of 14 centimetres saw Lydia take 8^th.