On what was, from my experience, the warmest-ever day at the Yorkshire Championships, our junior runners had a somewhat mixed day.
After some really encouraging team results in the West Yorkshire League, we were hoping that we might be able to win some team medals in this prestigious championship – unfortunately, injuries, illness and other considerations prevented us from fielding our strongest teams.
Nevertheless, we did manage to achieve results with three of our teams: our U13 Girls were 20th, U13 Boys 7th and U17 men 5th.
In the U13 Girls Rebecca Flaherty, who has two more years in this age-group, finished in a promising 32nd place, Grace Dawson was 37th, and Holly Walters, wearing a Bingley vest for the very first time, ensured a team position in 98th place.
The U13 Boys, who were short of several potential scorers, were led home by Alex Flaherty in a superb 2nd place, qualifying once again for the Inter-Counties. He was supported by an excellent run from Samuel Mantle in 23rd, and Jake Wallace in 45th.
Ruby Firth was our only representative in the Under 15 girls – in her first year in the age-group she had her best run of the season, finishing in an excellent 12th position.
In the U15 Boys Joseph Carnelley also found himself on his own, but battled through to finish in 49th position.
Both our U17 teams were below strength, but whereas our girls failed to finish a team, our boys achieved a commendable 5th position – we were left wondering what might have been.
In the girls race Katie Smith ran very strongly to finish 24th and Izzy Harris, as reliable as ever, finished in 30th place.
In the boys race it was a real pleasure to see Matthew Merrick running so aggressively, and hanging on to finish in 7th, thus guaranteeing a place in the Yorkshire team – well done! He was well supported by James Askew in 27th, and Josh Spencer closing out the team in 38th.
Results:
U13 Girls:
32nd Rebecca Flaherty;
Grace Dawson37th;
Holly Walters 98th
U13 Boys:
2nd Alex Flaherty;
23rd Samuel Mantle;
45th Jake Wallace
U15 Girls:
12th Ruby Firth
U15 Boys:
49th Joseph Carnelley
U17Women:
24th Katie Smith;
30th Izzy Harris
U17 Men:
7th Matthew Merrick;
27th James Askew;
38th Josh Spencer
Well done to all of those who took part and thank you to all the supporters: the next port of call is the Northern Championships, and we hope that you will all be fit and well for that particular challenge.
Tony Kingham