2017 County Schools Track & Field Championships

Costello Stadium, Hull – Saturday 10^th June 2017

The annual County Schools Championships were held at the Costello Stadium in Hull on Saturday the 10^th of June the meeting is for athletes who attend schools and colleges within Kingston upon Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire along with students from north and north east Lincolnshire. The ambition of everyone competing at this event is to attain the qualifying standard to hopefully gain selection for the County team which will travel to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham in July for the English Schools Championships. The relevant age categories for the competitors are junior (under 15’s) intermediate (under 17’s) and senior (under 20).

Performance details for all Kingston athletes at the County event are as follows.

Under 20’s

The 2017 County 100 and 200 metre champion Josh Sampson successfully defended both of the County Schools titles he won at this event in 2016 taking the 100 metre gold in a time of 11.6 sec and securing a second gold medal in the 200 with his run of 23.7 sec. Kyle Foster was defending the 800 metres title he won at last year’s championships and he did so in fine style running a new PB of 2:01.7 sec for the gold medal clipping 2 tenths of a second from his previous best time. The 1500 metres race was won by Tom Whitley who covered the metric mile in a time of 4:55.9 sec.

In the women’s competition Bryony Underwood was the winner of the 400 metres race where she clocked a time of 65.9 sec and Jess Fields took 2^nd place with her run of 66.5 sec. Sophie O’Hara won her third consecutive gold medal at the County Schools championships with her throw of 35.01 metres. Olivia Stevenson won her 5^th consecutive gold medal in the hammer competition and the UK ranked No.3 threw a new PB of 57.96 metres with the 4 kilogram hammer increasing her best mark by 2.74 metres. The 2017 County javelin Champion Sian Kerry added the County Schools gold medal to her collection with a throw of 25.72 metres, this was Sian’s 2^nd gold medal overall at the schools event.

Under 17’s

The 100 metres race saw Jack Perry win his second sprint gold medal at the Schools Championships the 2017 County champion’s run of 11.8 sec was enough to get him over the finish line for his second title win with the silver medal going to David Morgan-Harrison for his run of 12.3 sec and the bronze went to Nathan Cuthbert who ran a time of 12.3 sec with Tyler Thompson equalling his PB of 12.8 sec in 5^th place. The 200 metres race saw a second silver medal of the day go to David Morgan-Harrison for his run of 24.7 sec and a second bronze went to Nathan Cuthbert who clocked a time of 25.6 sec and Tyler Thompson took 5^th place with his season’s best run of 26.7 sec. Robert Tweedale won his third consecutive County Schools 400 metres title with his run of 52.3 sec, to add to his third consecutive County title that he won this at this May’s County Championship meeting and Adam Coles won his third consecutive County Schools hurdles title at this event taking the gold medal in the 80 metres hurdles race where he ran a time of 14.2 sec. Out on the field Shaun Kerry won his third consecutive shot title with his throw of 11.81 metres and Will Robinson’s throw of 49.71 metres saw him make a successful defence of the hammer title he won at the 2016 championships. Nathan Cuthbert who was making his County Schools Championship debut collected his second medal of the day this time he won the gold medal in the javelin competition with his throw of 32.63 metres. Kingston’s top two under 17 long jumpers were in action the 2015 English Schools Champion Jack Perry jumped a huge new PB of 6.56 metres 23 centimetres above his old best to take the title and win his second long jump gold at County Schools events and Adam Coles was the silver medallist with his leap of 5.95 metres.

The women’s competition saw the 2015 champion Hannah Kynman winning the gold medal with her run of 13.0 sec and the 2016 bronze medallist Cosima Fawcett’s run of 14.0sec won her a second consecutive bronze. Rose Hewitt had made her championship debut at the 2016 event where she had finished 4^th in both the 100 and 200 finals, this year she was again the 4^th place finisher in the 100 race and she won her first County Schools medal in the 200 metres running a time of 29.2 sec to take the bronze medal. Katy Greenacre won her first County Schools medal taking the bronze in the 1500 metres where in her first race of 2017 she ran a new PB of 5:41.3 sec taking 4.67 seconds off her previous best time. Four Kingston athletes ran in the 80 metres hurdles final where the gold medal went to the Northern indoor combined events champion Venus Morgan who clocked a time of 12.2 sec with Becky Chivers another combined eventer taking the bronze medal with her run of 14.0 sec closely followed by Paige Mathers in 4^th place in 14.2 sec and Abbie Haigh 5^th in 15.7 sec. In the 300 metres hurdles the 2016 silver medallist Lucy Savery went one better this year taking the gold medal and running a season’s best time of 51.9 sec.

In the field events Abbie Haigh saw further action in the high jump final where she took the gold medal with her clearance at a height of 1.40 metres just 2 centimetres short of her personal best performance. Libby Wheeler is having another outstanding year she is the reigning Northern indoor triple jump champion and has won the County triple and long jump titles. She took both titles again at the County Schools winning the triple jump with a effort of 11.20 metres and the long jump with a leap of 5.31 metres. Three Kingston athletes made a clean sweep of the medals in the javelin final where the 2015 champion Harriet Cannell was the gold medallist with a throw of 37.52 metres with the 2016 Northern champion Becky Chivers taking the silver with 32.16 metres and Paige Mathers the bronze with her throw of 26.20 metres. The discus final saw Beth Shaw take 4^th place with her throw of 18.86 metres.

Under 15’s

Brody Hinson the no. 1 ranked 100 and 200 metres sprinter in Yorkshire was defending both of the titles he won on his 2016 debut appearance at these championships. The 100 metres final saw him dominate the race running a time of 11.8 sec and finishing 7 tenths of a second ahead of the 2^nd placed finisher and Luke Carr ran a new PB of 13.4 sec 3 tenths of a second faster than his previous best for 6^th place. The 200 metres saw Brody take his second gold medal of the day clocking a time of 23.7 sec and finishing a full 2 seconds in front of the 2^nd placed athlete. The 800 metres final featured three training partners all of whom were making their County Schools debut appearances Harry Hudson was the winner of the race claiming the gold medal running a new PB 2:06.6 sec taking 2.1 seconds off his previous best time with Callum Featherstone taking the bronze medal in a time of 2:17.9 sec and Adam Fox was in 6^th place clipping 1.8 seconds off his best time running a new PB of 2:19.4 sec. Two more training partners were running in the 1500 metres final and they too were making their championship debuts Harvey Roberts was the gold medallist running a time of 4:41.5 sec and Tom Smales took 5.1 seconds off his best time running a new PB of 4:50.2 sec for 4^th place.

The field events brought Ben Copley one of this country’s elite young athletes into the championship action he is currently ranked No. 1 UK in the discus No. 2 javelin and No. 10 shot, on the 28^th of May this year he was the winner of the Loughborough javelin Carnival an event which saw every ranked javelin thrower in the UK in competition. He competed in all three of his events winning the javelin with a throw of 47.32 metres, the shot with a putt of 12.38 metres and the discus with an effort of 44.28 metres Another young Kingston athlete Antony Mould was also in action in the throwing events he was the gold medallist in the hammer where he threw 27.67 metres and took 4^th place in the discus with a throw of 22.20 metres.

Leah Wall who only made her club debut on the 7^th of May made her County Schools debut at this meeting and her day began in the 100 metres final where she was the bronze medallist running a time of 13.8 sec and Gina De Lancey took 7^th place in the final with her run of 14.5 sec. The 200 metres competition saw Leah safely negotiate the heats to take her place in the final where her run of 28.2 sec secured her the gold medal and the bronze medal went to Rowan Swinburn who ran a time of 28.9 sec. In the 800 metres final the 2016 champion Jodie Martin this year had to settle for the silver medal and she clocked a time of 2:32.7 sec with 4^th place going to Ella Shaw-Hall who was on debut and ran a new PB of 2:43.7 sec taking half a second off her old time. The 75 metres hurdles final saw four Kingston athletes in action where Lauren McClean on her championship debut was the bronze medallist running a new PB of 13.2 sec clipping a tenth of a second off her old best and Katie Smith took 4^th place equalling her PB of 13.4 sec with Alanah Thoresby 5^th in 13.7 sec and Lucy Whittaker 7^th in 16.3 sec.

The high jump competition saw Alanah Thoresby in further action and the 2016 silver medallist went one better this year clearing a height of 1.55 metres to take this year’s gold medal with Ellie Townsend winning the bronze and clearing 1.50 metres and Rosie Shepherd jumped a season’s best of 1.40 metres for 5^th and Lauren McClean cleared a new PB of adding 5 centimetres to her old best mark for 6^th place. Evie Watson finished in 4^th place in the long jump final with a best on the day of 4.22 metres. Northern indoor shot silver medallist Holly Adams announced her arrival at her Schools Championship debut with a hat trick of gold medals. She threw a new PB of 11.08 metres in the shot final an increase of 39 centimetres and the Northern bronze medallist Indigo Atkin took the silver medal with her throw of 9.24 metres, another new PB of 28.13 metres an increase of 90 centimetres on her old mark secured Holly the discus gold and Jess Townsend won the silver medal with her throw of 22.10 metres. Holly’s third gold medal came with a throw of 22.01 metres with the javelin with Esther Savage taking the silver with her effort of 20.84 metres and Gina De Lancey took 4^th place and set a new PB of 16.38 metres with the 5 kilogram javelin. The hammer competition saw the 2016 silver medallist Indigo Atkin take this year’s gold medal with a season’s best throw of 34.69 metres.