Round 3 in the YDL Upper Age Group Premier League took place at the famous Bebington Oval last weekend in a mixture of sunshine and rain. The Harriers Team was depleted by athletes at other competitions and injuries, but nevertheless, there was no shortage of effort on the day with some new athletes who hadn’t been involved at this level of competition previously. Their effort was rewarded with new personal bests for Maddie Elliott; Chloe Bleeks; Olivia Wilson; Freya Black; Ross Liddle; Connor Davison; Anthony Kent and Jessica Kit.
Performance of the day belonged to Maddie Elliott who won’t be 16 until October and goes from strength to strength with hardly a fixture going by where she doesn’t record a new PB, and this was no exception. In the ‘B’ 800m Maddie clipped nearly three and half seconds off her time to set a new PB of 2.22.1 (2nd), then chopped two seconds off her 1500m time to set a new PB of 4.52.4 (3rd) and then made it a hat-trick of new PB’s on the day in the 300m Hurdles coming home in 2nd place with a time of 49.4.
There were new PB’s for Chloe Bleeks (U17) showing her improvement over the sprint distances in the 100m with a time of 12.6 (2nd) which was a full second quicker than her previous best as well as for U20 Olivia Wilson in her 100m with a time of 14.45 (6th) before going on to run 70.5 in the ‘A’ 400m (6th) and the ‘A’ 800m placing 6th in 2.38.8. U20 John iLunga was just outside his PB, posting a time of 27.1 in his 200m event as was Chloe Bleeks again in the 200m where she placed 3rd in 28.5 and went on to take 4th spot in the Triple Jump (8.99m). New member Hannah Proctor and bottom of age U17 ran well in the 200m for 4th place in a time of 30.2 as did Freya Black in the U17 300m when she clipped two seconds off her previous best to set a new PB of 48.8 (6th). Hannah also went onto win the ‘A’ Shot Putt with a throw of 9.55m.
U20 Ross Liddle was in a very tough ‘A’ 400m Race won in 49.9 and the pace helped him to take four tenths off his old time to set a new PB of 52.1 (5th). Ross made it a good day for him by winning the 400m Hurdle ‘A’ Race pretty comfortably.
U17 Joe Gebbie who had never raced in a League fixture before was thrown in at the deep end in the ‘A’ 400m won in a time of 52.8. Joe got stuck in to record a time of 61.9 which was more than credible given that he hasn’t trained for the event and it was only his second ever race on the Track. Undeterred, he went into the 800m ‘A’ Race finishing 6th in a debut time of 2.19.9 and fought the whole way and great to see in someone so new to competitive Track & Field. What a start to U17 Hannah Cookson’s 400m racing experience. She ran the distance ‘B’ race for the first time in her life and won the race with a time of 64.2 and didn’t she battle for it. She followed that up with a 4th place in the ‘A’ 800m (2.30.8) and a 3rd spot in the Long Jump with a leap of 4.17m, just ten cms short of her PB. U17 Esme Pearse placed 6th in the 80m Hurdles (15.4), 2nd in the 300m Hurdles (59.2) and 4th in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.40m. U20 Ben Aspinall who hasn’t got a lot of competition behind him this year has started to find his feet again. He won the ‘A’ Triple Jump with a leap of 13.14m, came 2nd in the ‘A’ Long Jump with 6.25m, just ten cms off his PB and in his first High Jump since August 2015 came 2nd with a clearance of 1.70m just five cms shy of his best height.
John iLunga (U20) was just outside his High Jump PB with a clearance of 1.60m taking maximum points in the ‘B’ and equally just outside his Long Jump PB with a jump of 4.71m (3rd). John took some good points again in the ‘B’ Triple Jump (3rd) with 9.58m. U20 Connor Davison one of the long standing members of the Clubs young throwing squad set a new PB in the Shot Putt (6kg) placing 3rd with 9.65m, wasn’t far off his best in the Discus (1.75kg) with a 3rd placed throw of 29.36m and added a 5th spot in the Javelin (30.49m). U17 Anthony Kent set his day off in good form with a new PB in winning the ‘A’ Hammer (5kg) of 42.91, then set another new PB in the Shot Putt placing 3rd with 11.23m and finished the day off with a 3rd in the Discus (37.78m). 15yr old Lucas Davies took on the higher weight Shot Putt (5kg) for the first time taking a good 2nd place with 6.92m, just missed a PB in winning the ‘B’ Discus (1.5kg) with 23.07m and adding a 5th placed throw of 23.90m in the Javelin. A real stalwart of the Club is U20 Thrower – Rebecca Orrell. She took 2nd spot in the ‘A’ Shot putt (8.40m), 2nd again the Discus (1kg) with 22.76m and 2nd again in the Hammer with a throw of 44.19m. Such great consistency from Rebecca every time she competes.
U17 Jessica Kit who is in here first competitive season set herself a new PB in Shot Putt (3kg) with a throw of 6.85m (3rd), then set another new PB in Discus (1kg) with a throw of 17.06m and was off the pace in the Javelin in 4th spot (12.43m). Yet another new athlete in her first season of competition was Charlotte Heyworth who took all the points in the ‘B’ Discus (1kg) with a throw of 14.42m, came 3rd in the Javelin (12.19m) and rowed in for the Club by having a go at the Hammer (5th) with 9.78m. U17 Jacob Roberts who is currently ranked 2nd in the country won the Hammer (5kg) with a throw of 65.63m. Jacob has been out in fourteen competitions this season, winning 13 and finishing 2nd in the other which is a pretty impressive record.
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