Northern Athletics Senior & Under 20 Championships
Sports City, Manchester Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd June 2019
With musical accompaniment from the Spice Girls who were carrying out a sound check for their concert in the adjacent Etihad Stadium the Northern Athletics Senior & Under 20 Championships were again staged at Sports City in Manchester. With a change of date meaning that there was no longer a clash with county schools championships the event drew a record entry with Kingston upon Hull AC being well represented as usual.
Adam Coles took a break from his A level studies to contest both the 110m hurdles and long jump events in the under 20 age group. A Northern medallist every year since 2015 Adam quickly added to his impressive record at area level when recording a personal best of 6.40m in the first round of the long jump, a leap which brought him the bronze medal behind the outstanding 16 year old Archie Yeo (Scunthorpe & District) whose winning jump of 7.45m took him well clear at the top of the national rankings and was only 2cm short of the championship record set in 1987. Adam then moved on to his main event, the 110m hurdles, an event in which he took the gold medal at last year’s championships. Missing his usual sharpness out of the blocks he looked out of the medals at halfway but a strong second half of the race saw him come through for 2nd place, clocking a personal best time of 15.04 sec also an entry standard for both the England Athletics and English Schools Championships. The title went to West Cheshire AC’s Ewan Bradley, last year’s UK School Games bronze medallist, in 14.87 sec.
Venus Morgan is also in the middle of her A level exams and is currently concentrating on sprint hurdles rather than taking on the greater commitment of training for 7 events of the heptathlon. Another regular medallist at Northern level she too won her first medal at this level in 2015 and now has a collection running into double figures. A bronze in the 100m hurdles in Manchester added to this, Venus recording a time of 15.14 sec with the title going to England international heptathlete, Abigail Pawlett (Stockport Harriers) with an outstanding 14.39 sec.
Under 20 Shaun Kerry, was in championship action, on both days of competition. Saturday saw him performing, in the senior men’s hammer final, where he threw the 7.26 kg hammer, a distance of 53.80 metres, to take the bronze medal. Sunday saw him take the gold medal, in the under 20’s hammer final. Throwing the 6kg hammer, out to 63.49 metres. He also competed, in the under 20 shot putt final, where he threw a new PB, with the 6kg shot, of 14.07 metres, an improvement of 29 cm, winning the silver medal.
Senior athlete Clare Blunt, won the 4th Northern Championships, pole vault title of her career. Going clear at a height of 3.70 metres, backing up the gold medal, she won at the Yorkshire championships, in Cudworth, this May.
Senior athlete Megan Hoult, was in action in the 100 and 200 metre sprints. First up on the Saturday were the heats of the 100 metres. She was drawn in heat 2, where her season’s best run of 12.22 sec, gave her a 4th place finish, and a spot in the final. She ran another season’s best, of 12.20 in the 100 final, which gave her the bronze medal. Megan ran in heat 2 of Sunday’s 200 metres, taking 5th place, running a season’s best time of 25.64 sec, but missed out, on the cut for the final.
Under 20 Sarah Robinson, made the second Northern Championships appearance, of her career, in Sunday’s hammer final. She took 5th place in the final, throwing the 4kg hammer, out to a distance of 44.68 metres.
Hurdles specialist, Sonia Santos, made her 4th appearance, at the Northern’s. Running in the 100 metre hurdles final, she took 6th place, running a season’s best time of 15.80 sec.
Under 23 Charlotte Paterson, five times Northern sprint champion, over 100 and 200 metres, ran the 400 metres, at the 2019 event. She was drawn in heat 1, where she took 3rd place, running a new PB of 57.57 sec, a 1.47 improvement. In the final, she took 5th place, running another new PB of 56.82 sec, clipping 0.75 sec off her heat time.
Andrew Morgan-Harrison, and Joe Cooper were in competition, in the senior men’s 100 and 200 metre sprints. There were ’A’ and ‘B’finals in the 100 metres, Andrew and Joe, were drawn together in heat 3, where a season’s best run of 10.89 sec, saw Andrew qualify for the ‘A’ final. Joe’s run of 11.28 sec, gained him qualification for the ‘B’ final. Andrew took 7th place in the ‘A’, running a time of 11.04 sec. Joe took 4th place in the ‘B’, running a time of 11.18 sec. In the 200 metres, Joe Cooper was drawn in heat 1, where his run of 23.02sec wasn’t enough to get him in to the final. Andrew Morgan-Harrison was drawn in the 3rd heat, where he was the race winner, running a time of 21.40 sec, winning a spot in the final, where he was the bronze medallist, running his season’s best time of 21.40 sec.
Josh Sampson, was in action, in the under 20 men’s 200 metres. Drawn in heat 3, he took 4th place in the race, running a time of 22.56 sec, but he missed the cut for the final.
Masters athlete John Twiddle, competed in both the senior men’s, hammer and shot finals. He took 6th place in the hammer, with a throw of 41.07 metres. The shot saw him take 4th place finish, with his putt of 12.12 metres.
Senior athlete James Wardle, joined the championship action, in the triple jump, where he took 5th place pulling out a new PB of 12.55 metres, an improvement of 41 cm.
