Month: January 2020

Congratulations to all those athletes that competed in ‘The Harriers’ first junior endurance Grand Prix series for U15 &U13 athletes in 2019. The event started in July 2019 and points where awarded on performance over the track, road and cross country; plus, bonus points for representing the club in competitions that the club compete in

Age Group Winners
Boys Under 15 – Zac Fraser
Girls Under 15 – Ruby Erzan-Essien
Boys Under 13 – Joseph Webster
Girls Under 13 – Isobel Oxley

Overall Standings
Boys Under 15
Zac Fraser 42
Harry Aldred 31
Josh Bentley-Hughes 21
Jason Scaife 11

Girls Under 15
Ruby Erzan-Essien 38
Lily Philbin 36
Hannah Swailes 21
Millie Bracey 20

Boys Under 13
Joseph Webster 55
Connor Gettinby 13
Charlie Parker 11
Charlie Aldred 10
Harry Owens 9

Girls Under 13
Isobel Oxley 34
Poppy Dunne 11
Jennifer Ekiugo 9
Mia Makin 8
Vesta Drevinskaite 7

It was yet another successful Northern indoor championships this weekend. Highlight of the weekend was an outstanding 1500m gold medal for middle distance star Jonny Kay. He destroyed the field, lapping a couple of competitors and coming home in a time of 3min 51.58. This time is the qualifying standard for the British championships to be held in Glasgow in February and will be Jonny’s first British champs.
Joining him at the championship will be sprint star Hannah Kelly. Hannah has already qualified for the 200m based on her performances in 2019. On Saturday she decide to compete over 400m as a ‘bit of fun’. In her third ever 400m race in her heat she lead from the gun and easily qualified for the final in a time of 58.13. With extremely heavy legs only two hours later she lined up for the final. Despite being a 400m novice she ran through the pain to take the bronze medal in 56.94 seconds.
Also in the 400m U20 Olivia Kimbowa in her first indoor 400m race finished a fantastic 4th in the final. As ever Olivia judged her race perfectly, didn’t panic and came through strong in the last 40m. Jack Dickinson competed for the first time since making the final of the 400m at last years Northern indoors. Despite having trained very little in the last 8 months he ran a gutsy race to finish 4th in his heat.
There were 3 Bolton athletes in the 60m short sprint. U20 athlete Taiwo Taiwo having missed nearly two years of training due to injury was very nervous lining up against the best in the North of England. She didn’t disappoint and blasted her semi final and recorded a time of 7.93 seconds. This was her second fastest time ever and testimony to all her hard work. She stormed to 7th in the final and is now ready to push on and run fast times in the summer.
Abigail Adeniji lined up in the U17 women’s 60m. She ran a controlled heat to qualify for the semi final and came a creditable 8th despite suffering with a knee injury. In the men’s 60m Eniola Adedotun ran a controlled heat and smashed the semi final coming second in 7.17 seconds. This was not only a big PB but yet another of Les Hall’s talented sprint group to have beaten their coaches PB. Eni then finished 8th in the final.
Multi talented athlete Julia Winogrodzka had a busy Saturday morning. Within 90 minutes she had to run three 60m hurdles races as well as compete in the Long Jump. She breezed through to the final of the hurdles and finished 6th. Her best time of the day was 9.04 seconds. She also came 9th in the long jump with a distance of 5m 26.
Under 20 athlete Rebecca Weekes set a new indoor PB of 27.24 seconds in the 200m coming second in her semi final. Unfortunately she didn’t progress to the final as one of the fastest losers but still ran a great race at her first Northern championships.
Hannah and Jonny have qualified for the senior British Championships and all the other athletes have achieved the qualifying times for the England Athletics age group championships.