Yorkshire Open – Combined Events Meeting
Dorothy Hyman Stadium – Cudworth
Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th August 2019
The weekend of the 24th and 25th of August, took Kingston athlete, Emilia Russell, over to Cudworth, in South Yorkshire, where she was in competition, in the Yorkshire Open combined events meeting. She was in action, in the under 17 women’s Heptathlon event. She was under the weather, suffering with a water infection, and a low blood count. Both her parents and her coach, gave her the option not to compete. Emilia is a true competitor, in every sense of the word, and she insisted on competing.
Day One – Saturday 24th August
The opening event, in the heptathlon, was the 80 metres hurdles race, which was run, in an oppressive temperature of 30 degrees. She finished, in a well below par time of 14.8 sec. The next event was the high jump, with all the athletes, struggling to keep cool in the sun. She went clear at a height of 1.44 metres, her par, is 1.50 metres plus. It was then on to the shot putt, where she threw a respectable 9.72 metres. She was initially credited, with 9.52 metres, but it was rectified later on in the day. The fourth and final event of the day, was the 200 metres sprint, where she ran a brilliant race, finishing in 2nd place, with her run of 28.82 sec. She was the competition leader at the end of day one.
Day Two – Sunday 25th August
Three more disciplines, were to be decided, in Sundays competition. The opening event was, the long jump, with the thermometer reading 33 degrees. Her performance of 4.39 metres, was well below her average of 4.80. In the javelin, she rallied, and pulled out a new PB of 32.61 metres. 61 cm, beyond her old mark of 32.00 metres. The final event of day two, was the 800 metres race, where she took a 2nd place finish, running a time of 2:34.0, once again it was below her normal standard.
Emilia was the winner, of the competition, and was duly crowned the ‘Yorkshire Open Champion’, having amassed a total of 3695 points, over the seven events. 2nd place, went to, Hallamshire’s Holly Fowler, who accrued a points total 3614 points. 3rd place was taken by Tegan Hamilton Adams, of Halifax.
Emilia was denied entry, to the, Yorkshire Combined events Championships, because she had already won, the Humberside title. If she had been allowed to compete, in the Yorkshire Championships, she would have won the Yorkshire title as well.
