Northern
Athletics U15/U17 Indoor Championships
EIS Sheffield
Sunday 27th January 2008
The Girls
Squad
Countless
personal bests, six finalists, two silver and one bronze medals - what more can
you ask for on a cold, miserable day?
Eleven girls (pictured above) and one boy with a large
army of supporters made the trip to the Northern Athletics U15/U17 indoor
championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Lottie
Owen, Sophie Riley, Alicia, Kassidy Knight, Ruth Holdsworth and Beth
Towers competed for the U15 Girls, all taking part in the 60m with good
times in a strong field; Sophie made the final and finished 5th with
8.37s. Lottie, Kassidy and Beth took part in the long jump
with Lottie making the final eight, thus earning a further three jumps,
in which she finished 4th overall with 4.83m, narrowly missing out on a bronze
medal by 3cms! Beth took part in the 60m Hurdles and finished 3rd
in her heat with 10.23s narrowly missing out on a final place! The rest
of the U15 Girls competed in the 200m with times ranging from 27.27s to
29.47s. Well done girls!!
In her second year as an U17, Sophie Owen ran a strong 300m heat
to finish first and qualified for the final where she took silver in a time of
41.42s. Megan Healey, in her first competition as an U17, also ran
well in the 300m with a time of 47.11s to claim 5th place in her heat. Claire
Owens, Megan Healey, Lucy Mansfield and Katy Wyper (all first year
U17's) entered the 60m and with only the winner of each heat and the four
fastest losers qualifying for the final, it was a tough task ahead of
them! All the girls recorded PB's with Lucy and Katy making
the final as two of the fastest losers. Lucy narrowly missed out on a
medal in the final, which says a lot about the calibre of the athletes
competing.
Claire Owens and Lucy Mansfield ran in the
200m, with Lucy qualifying for the final by winning her heat, although Claire
just missed out. With Shauna Thompson (Sale H Manchester) and Carys Hall
(City of Sheffield) lining up alongside her in a very strong final, Lucy
ran a good race, earning herself silver with a time of 25.13s.
Finally in U17 long jump Katy Wyper certainly had strong
opposition and someone to look up to in the form of Katarina
Thompson (Liverpool H) standing at 6ft plus, who was the
overall winner with a jump of 5.99m! Katy achieved a new indoor PB
of 5.03m thus making the final eight and after a further three jumps finished
in 6th place overall. Meanwhile our sole male representative, Declan O’Hara,
won a well-deserved bronze medal with a solid 3.40 in the pole vault.
On a final note I would like to say a very well done to all the
athletes; when you're training for an indoor competition and the nearest
indoor arena is in Manchester, these results show you what these girls
have achieved. Yes we do have an indoor track but, (and this is not a complaint
honest, just trying to point out what we are up against), our track is straight
lanes and not actually long enough for a proper 200m session. The competition
train at the top venues and still our athletes come back with good PB's
and medals, so their hard work and achievements are
a credit to them all.
Bob Wyper
Reporter (I am
not); passionate (I am)