Northern Athletics Track & Field Championships
Senior & Under 20 s
Sport City Manchester – Saturday 9th/Sunday 10th June 2018
Sixteen Kingston upon athletes travelled over the Pennines, to compete at the 2018 Northern senior and under 20 track & field championship meeting, which was held at the Sport City stadium in Manchester. They brought six medals home with them. Adam Coles won gold in the under 20men’s 110 metre hurdles and also won the bronze in the long jump. Silver medals went to Josh Tranmer in the under 20 men’s discus and to Harriet Cannell in the under 20 women’s javelin. Venus Morgan won the bronze in the under 20 women’s 100 metre hurdles and Maggie Okul took the bronze in the senior women’s hammer.
Saturday morning saw the start of both the senior men’s and senior women’s 100 metre sprint competitions. In the men’s competition, the finalists would be decided over 5 heats and three semi finals. All the heats were run into a head wind which affected the athletes times. Heat 2 saw Andrew Morgan-Harrison who was running into a -1.8 wind take 3rd place in 11.03 sec. In heat 2 Joe Cooper who had to contend with a -3.3, took 2nd place running a time of 11.44 sec. Both of them qualified for the semi finals, where Andrew went in the second race taking 2nd place and running 11.02 sec but felt his hamstring and couldn’t run in the final. Joe went in the third semi running a season’s best time of 11.29 sec but missed the cut for the final. The senior women’s competition consisted of two heats followed by the final. Megan Hoult was drawn in heat 2 where she took 3rd place running 12.58 sec into a wind of -3.6 and booked herself a place in the final, where she took 6th place running a time of 12.70 sec into a -3.1. The under 20 men’s 100 metre competition saw David Morgan-Harrison running in a straight final, where he took 6th place and posted a time of 11.90 sec into a -2.00 wind. The under 20 women’s 100 metres was also a straight final and Gabbie Whittle took 8th place in the race running a time of 13.54 sec into a -2.2. The senior men’s 1500 metres consisted of 2 heats and a final, Harry Powell the former under 20 men’s 5000 metre champion, was drawn in the first heat and his run of 4:03.07 sec saw him qualify for the final, where he took 9th place running a time of 4:06.86 sec. Heat 1 of the senior women’s 100 metre hurdles saw Sonia Dos Santos book her place in the final running a season’s best time of 16.05 sec for 4th place. The final saw Sonia run another season’s best of 15.78 sec for a 6th place finish. The Northern Championships have always been one of Adam Coles’ most successful events having collected medals in both sprint hurdles and long jump through the under 15 & under 17 age groups, culminating in his title-winning performance over 100m hurdles at Leigh Sports Village last August. Now in his first year as an under 20 Adam contested his 2 favourite events in Manchester. A disappointingly low entry in the 110m hurdles meant that his event was run alongside the seniors. This at least provided him with some good opposition and despite an unhelpful strong headwind Adam rose to the occasion and crossed the line in third place overall but taking the under 20 title in a new personal best time of 15.86 seconds. He also added to his growing tally of Northern medals with another lifetime best performance of 6.25m to take bronze in the long jump. Training partner Venus Morgan also possesses an impressive collection of Northern championship medals. The talented heptathlete, also in her first year in the under 20 age group, began her day with 4th place in the long jump, her leap of 5.39m falling just 9cm short of the bronze medal position. Venus then moved on to the 100m hurdles where she finished in 3rd place, clocking 15.66 sec, also having to cope with a strong headwind. Three members of the Hull hammer squad were in action on the Saturday with British Masters athlete John Twiddle taking 5th place in the senior men’s hammer, where his throw of 41.19 metres with the 7.26 kg hammer gave him 5th place in the final. The senior women’s hammer competition saw training partners Alice Barnsdale and Maggie Okul, both back home for a while from their universities in the USA, competing in the final. It was a good contest between the two, where Alice won the bragging rights, taking the silver medal with her throw of 56.38 metres and Maggie the bronze with 51.44 metres. John Twiddle was also in action in the senior men’s shot, where he took 6th place with his throw of 12.00 metres. Josh Tranmer followed up his recent victory in the discus at the County championships, with a silver medal at the Northerns where he threw 42.88 metres in the under 20 men’s discus. County champion Harriet Cannell was the silver medallist in the under 20 women’s javelin, throwing a new PB of 34.09 metres, a improvement of 53cm. Sundays competition saw Megan Hoult back on the track in the senior women’s 200 metres event. She was drawn in the first of the two heats where she produced her season’s best run of 25.41 sec to take 2nd place in the race and qualify for the final. Megan ran exactly the same time as her heat 25.41 sec, to take 4th place in the 200 metres final. The men’s 200 metres event brought Joe Cooper back in to action. He was drawn in the third of the three heats and ran his season’s best time of 22.86 sec for 4th place but did not make the cut for the final. In the 400 metre hurdles final County champion Daniel Holiday took 6th place running a time of 59.16 sec. Four members of the Hull hammer Squad were in action in Sunday’s competition. Alice Barnsdale followed up her silver in Saturday’s senior women’s event with the gold medal in the under 20’s where she threw 56.16 metres and the silver medallist was Ollie Stevenson with her throw of 54.29 metres. John Twiddle was in the discus circle taking 7th place in the final with a throw of 33.28 metres. Under 17 athlete Shaun Kerry competed in a under 18’s competition at the championships, which he won and added another 68 cm to his PB which now stands at 67.44 metres and maintains his place at No. 1 in the UK rankings.
