2016 Northern Track & Field Championships – Under 13’s 15’s and 17’s

Middlesbrough Sports Village 

Saturday 13^th & Sunday 14^th August 2016

The 2016 Northern Track & Field Championships, for under13’s, 15’s and 17’s, were staged at the Middlesbrough Sports Village, the home track of the Middlesbrough Mandale Athletics Club.

Sixteen of Kingston’s young athletes made the journey up to Yorkshire’s north eastern border to test themselves against the finest athletes northern England had to offer. A fair few of them had serious medal chances and some went there to give their best efforts and to experience the atmosphere of a major championship meeting whilst also hoping they could get on to the winners podium.

The under 20’s 3000 metres championship was also held at this meeting and two further Kingston athletes were involved in the final of that race, taking the Hull contingent up to a most respectable eighteen.

Between them they won a grand total of nineteen medals, 5gold, 10 silver and 4 bronze. Shaun Kerry won gold and set a new championship record in the under 15’s hammer, over the two days he also won three silvers in javelin, shot and the under 17’s hammer. Further gold medal winners were Ben Copley in the under 15’s discus, Josh Tranmer in under 17’s discus, Becky Chivers in the under 15’s javelin and Harry Powell who was already the under 20’s Northern 5000 metres champion, added the 3000 metres title and the gold medal to his growing list of achievements.

Performance details for all of the Kingston athletes who competed in the championships are as follows.

Becky Chivers

14 year old Becky Chivers chose the right moment to produce a huge personal best, adding almost 3 metres to her previous distance.  Her first round throw of just over 34m would have taken gold but she extended this to 34.57m with her fourth throw to give her a clear 2 metre advantage over the favourite, Pendle’s Alex Baker. This was Becky’s first appearance at regional level and the win gave her a hat trick of titles in 2016 having taken the Humberside County & Humberside Schools gold medals earlier in the season. An added bonus is that she is now well clear at the top of the Yorkshire & Humberside rankings and has moved up to 24^th in the UK having thrown 8m further than in 2015.

Adam Coles

Adam Coles is no stranger to success at Northern level having finished 2^nd in the under 15 80m hurdles in 2015. Moving up to the under 17 age group he finished 5^th in the indoor 60m hurdles in January. The headwind in Middlesbrough prevented fast times being recorded but Adam produced his best run of the season finishing just 0.02 sec behind the outstanding Joe Halpin (Gateshead Harriers), clocking 14.80 sec. His domination of sprint hurdling in the area is underlined by his season’s best of 14.5 sec being almost a second clear of the 2^nd ranked Yorkshire & Humberside athlete.

Jodie Martin 

Jodie Martin brought home what was probably Kingston’s most unexpected medal from these championships. 7^th ranked among the 9 finalists in the under 15 girls 800m the South Holderness schoolgirl  ran a perfectly judged race to come through the field on the second lap and still found enough speed in her legs to take the silver medal after a sprint down the final straight. Jodie’s time of 2:25.76 sec took 2 ½ seconds off her previous best time. The reigning English School’s 1,500m champion Olivia Mason (Border Harriers, Cumbria) took the title in 2:18.69 sec

Venus Morgan

Venus Morgan had an unusually quiet day at Middlesbrough. The club record holder at heptathlon is more used to contesting a number of events at most of her events but chose to concentrate on the 80m hurdles this time. In a very tight finish Venus took 3^rd place with 12.13 sec, suffering the same fate as her training partner Coles in missing out on a higher placing by only 0.02sec.The gold medal went to Alice Linaker (City of York), a fellow heptathlete,  in 12.13 sec.

Sam Croney

Another athlete missing out in a photo finish was hurdler Sam Croney in the under 15 80m event. The Northern Indoor bronze medallist over the shorter 60m distance was forced to settle for the same position in Middlesbrough, by the same margin of 0.02 sec as both of his older club mates. Sam recorded a time of 12.14 sec just losing out to Wigan’s Ben Hughes, with Oliver Dakin (Chesterfield) taking gold with 11.44 sec. Consolation for Sam is that he too sits comfortably at the top of the Yorkshire & Humberside rankings with a best time of 11.87 sec recorded at last month’s English Schools Championships.

Shaun Kerry

14 year old Shaun Kerry arrived in Middlesbrough hoping to defend the under 15’s hammer title that he had won at the same venue in 2015, where he had thrown a new PB of 48.89m with the 4 kilogram hammer to win the gold medal. He has made great progress since then and his PB with the 4k now stands at 60.85m, which he threw at this year’s English Schools Championships, where he took the gold medal and set a new Championship best performance. The UK ranked No.1 launched a new Championship record of 57.17m at Middlesbrough to successfully defend his title in fine style.

Shaun also won silver medals in both the javelin and the shot competitions, throwing a distance of 43.30m in the javelin and 13.31m in the shot. A third silver medal was attained in the under 17’s hammer event where he was throwing the 5 kilogram hammer, he took the silver with a new PB with the 5k of 51.12m.

Will Robinson

15 year old Will Robinson was the hammer silver medallist behind Shaun at last year’s Northern under 15’s, the two lads are training partners and Will too is making good progress in the event, in 2016 he has won both the County title and the County Schools title. At this meeting his throw of 47.27m, just 23 centimetres below his personal best gave him the bronze medal.

Ben Copley

13 year old Ben Copley has increased his personal best with the 1.25k discus by 7.10 metres during the 2016 track & field season, the UK ranked No. 6 who was the silver medallist at the English Schools championships in Gateshead, went one better at the Middlesbrough Sports Village, winning the Northern title and throwing a new PB of 40.81m into the bargain.

Harry Powell

At this Junes Northern under20 championships at a wet and windy Sport City stadium in Manchester Harry Powell ran an excellent race to win the 5000 metres final and he also took 12.06s off his previous best time. He travelled up to Middlesbrough looking to win a second Northern title , this time in the 3000 metres. Harry took a whopping 57.48s off his previous best time, running 8:44.05s to take the gold medal and establish himself as a double Northern Champion.

Josh Taylor-Brown

Josh joined his training partner in the 3000 metres final and the County 1500 metre champion also trimmed his PB by 7.10s, running a time of 9:20.65s to take a 4^th place finish.

Josh Tranmer

Josh Tranmer went into these championships as the No. 5 ranked discus thrower in the UK, he has enjoyed a most successful season, winning both the County title and the County schools title. In July he won the bronze medal at the English Schools Championships the biggest competition in the UK. He competed in both of his specialist events at this meeting, the discus of course and the shot. The discus final was a closely fought affair and Josh was pushed by a good quality field and in particular by the silver medallist Nathan Byrne of Southport Waterloo, he secured the gold medal with his throw of 41.36m to take his third Northern title. In the shot competition he threw a new PB of 13.87m which secured him the silver medal, with the gold going to David Todd of Chester Le Street.

Holly Adams

12 year old Holly Adams was in championship action in two events the shot and the discus. The under 13’s County shot champion threw a new PB of 9.60 m to win the silver medal in her main event. There was no discus competition in Holly’s age category so she entered the under 15’s discus event where she picked up a second silver medal with her throw of 24.06m.

Ollie Stevenson

The women’s hammer final saw Kingston’s Ollie Stevenson the UK No. 2 going head to head with the UK No. 3 Tara Simpson-Sullivan of Carlisle Aspatria, with the rest of the field fighting for the bronze medal. At this level of competition the margins between success and failure are miniscule and it is all down to who has that little bit extra on the day. Ollie was just a tiny fraction away from her best and that was enough for Tara to take the gold and she had to settle for the silver medal. The two girls may meet again this season at the UK School Games in Loughborough.

Amelia Benson

The County and County Schools 100 and 200 metres Champion Amelia Benson competed in both of the sprint races at Middlesbrough. In the 100 metres final she won the silver medal running a time of 12.61s.  She collected a second medal this time the bronze in the 200 metres final where she crossed the finishing line in a time of 26.01s.

Hannah Kynman

A second Kingston athlete Hannah Kynman fought her way through the heats of the 100 metres and took her place with Amelia in the final. Hannah’s run of 12.70s saw her take 5^th place in the final.

Indigo Atkin

Indigo Atkin is enjoying her first full track & field season in which we have seen her win the County hammer and shot titles and make her County debut at the recent Inter Counties meeting at Costello. She made her debut appearance at the Northern Championships competing in three events, the hammer, javelin and shot. Indigo threw a new PB of 35.05m in the hammer final for a 7^th place finish. An effort of 8.99m gave her 8^th place in the shot event and she took 6^th place in the javelin with a throw of 25.54m.

Harriet Cannell

Harriet Cannell is competing in her second full track & field season and she is the reigning County javelin champion. This meeting was her first appearance at a Northern Championships event. She was in competition in the javelin throw and she gave a good account of herself, taking 5^th place with 34.89m.

Kyle Foster

This is the second full track & field season for 16 year old Kyle Foster, 2016 has seen him win both the County and County Schools 800 metres titles and also make his debut appearance at the Inter Counties Championships. He was in action up at Middlesbrough in the 800 metres final where his run of 2:06.72s saw him finish in 9^th place.