Three of the four West Yorkshire Sportshall Athletics teams had an excellent day at the recent Yorkshire finals qualifying for the trip to Birmingham to the Aviva Sportshall UK Finals at the LG Arena at the NEC. The UK finals certainly prove to be an eye opener to some of our athletes with the scale of the competition and the best of the best all looking to win medals. To win any medal at these championships is a proud achievement.

The event at the NEC started with its usual pomp and ceremony with the impressive parade and terrific atmosphere, and soon after the start things were looking good for the West Yorkshire Teams.

As the competition unfolded West Yorkshire took silver in the Under 13 Boys Obstacle Relay (Daniel Levitt, Cameron Lake, William Morris & Luca Zenti), with Luca Zenti also winning bronze in the Speed Bounce competition.

In the Under 13 Girls competition Rebekah Tiler for the third year in succession took gold in the vertical jump with a leap of 70cm and then went on take bronze with team mate Amy Pollard in the 8 Lap Paarlauf relay. Erin Newsome also in the Under 13 Girls took a silver medal in the Standing Long Jump and was unlucky to just miss the medals with 4th in the 2 Lap race. Ambah Thompson in the STJ, Luca Zenti in the 6 Lap and the U13 Boys 4x1 Lap relay all just missed the medals in 4th place. Pictured below are Rebekah and Amy with Commonwealth Heptathlon Champion Louise Hazel



The Under 15 Boys finished in a creditable 4th place just equalling the best place for a West Yorkshire U15 Boys team dating back to 1996. In the U15 Boys team Will Gibson was second in the 4 Lap race and the 4x2 Lap team of( Sam Afari, Edward Saxton, Will Gibson & Leon Greenwood) were third in the final. Harry Ellis was again an unlucky one to finish 4th in the Standing Long Jump competition. Will Gibson was highest placed West Yorkshire athlete in the individual all rounder competition in 9th place.

The U15 Girls West Yorkshire team did not qualify for the finals but Chloe Tindale was invited as an individual to compete following her top performance in the Speed Bounce and on the day finished 4th in the Speed Bounce and 15th in the overall All Rounder competition.

We had a total of 13 National medals which is West Yorkshires second highest tally which is a fine achievement in such top class competition.

The team competitions results were :-

Under 13 Girls - winners Cheshire, West Yorkshire 7th
Under 13 Boys - winners Avon, West Yorkshire 7th
Under 15 Girls - winners Berkshire.
Under 15 Boys - winners Birmingham , West Yorkshire 4th

All round it was an excellent team performance from West Yorkshire teams with 12 teams contesting the competitions with teams from all over the UK. To have three near the top half of the scoring is one of our best achievements.

Many of these athletes are still young enough to contest next year so we can expect even better results.

Alan Oates
West Yorkshire Sportshall Athletics