ONCE again a small number of North East athletes travelled to Glasgow’s Emirates Arena for the Scottish Under-13/15/20 Indoor Championships returning on a high after trawling in four gold, three silver and four bronze medals.
And for one particular athlete she will not want the season to end for she thrilled the Scottish spectators on the opening day of the championships by breaking two National records on her way to setting new British records! North Shields Poly’s Emily Bond set the standard in the first heat of the under-13 hurdles, the opening event on the programme, and in doing so erased the existing 9.65sec from the record books by producing, not only a new pb of 9.19s, but also setting a new British record on the way. In the hurdles she was joined by Blyth Running Club’s Millie Wilkinson who went into the fixture with a pb of 9.92s. However, after progressing through the heats and semi-finals she produced the run of her life to finish in second place behind Emily after setting her best-ever figures of 9.73s. That wasn’t the end of the action for the duo especially Emily who had her eyes on two other events practically running side-by-side during an action-packed day. First up was the long jump and after breaking the Scottish record of 4:85 metres in the opening round with a mark in the sand at 4:94m she leapt even further in round four to 5:03m, another British record to cherish. Blyth's Sadie Parker was inspired by Emily’s winning leap which urged her on to joining her on the podium after finishing in third place with a new indoor pb of 4:42m. Then it was on to the high jump for Emily and though it had already been a tiring day she still managed to clear a new pb height of 1:55m, a height just one centimetre shy of the existing Scottish record. Three events, three gold medals, not a lot more can be asked for an extremely talented local athlete who now tops this year’s UK rankings at 60m hurdles, long jump and high jump. Millie Wilkinson was back on the starting blocks an hour or so later to contest the 60 metres where she was joined by fellow Blyth athletes Abigail Huntley and Maya Turner and all three progressed through to the semi-finals. However, both Millie and Maya managed to make it to the final with Abigail just missing out. And the pair were just pipped for the gold medal with Millie finishing in second place -another silver medal – and Maya third ensuring the required celebration for the Blyth outfit. In the under-20 60m hurdles, Gateshead’s Philippa Ellis finished in second place in her heat (9.31s) and then produced a new life-time best of 9.00s in the final where she finished in third position. Not long later a Gateshead athlete was topping the podium. Twelve months ago the Tyneside club’s Jazmine Moss won the under-20 200m in 24.74s, however, this time round Rachel Bennett, in her first outing over the distance this winter, claimed the title with a new pb of 24.25s, a time which slots her into third place in the UK rankings. In the under-13 200m Blyth’s Sadie Parker progressed to the final after setting a new indoor pb of 28.64s in the earlier rounds. However, she couldn’t quite repeat that performance in the final and finished in sixth position in 29.27s. Tynedale's Will Ainsley claimed a maiden Scottish National medal, crossing the line in his U13 60m hurdles race with huge smile on his face to take the silver medal. In the under-20 shot put competition, Gateshead’s Lucy Giles produced a huge pb of 11:48m to claim the silver medal with team-mate Philippa Ellis finishing in fourth place while Alnwick’s Leila Thompson also made it onto the podium in third spot in the under-13 shot contest with a put of 9:12m. Gateshead’s Hannah Buckton and Lexie Ellis were the only athletes to make it onto the podium on the second day, Hannah progressing through to the final of the under-15 60m hurdles where she finished in third position in a time of 9.52s while team-mate Lexi produced a new life-time best of 10:88m to finish runner-up in the under-15 shot put contest. There were fourth place finishers for Tynedale’s Lewis Davison in the under-15 200m where he returned 25.41s after clocking 25.05 in the semis; Megan Costello was fourth in the under-20 60m (7.92s); and fellow Gateshead athlete, Amelia Sherlock was fourth in the under-15 60m in 8.17s. Darlington’s Kate Williams joined Amelia in the final and finished in eighth place in 8.44s though she recorded 8.29s in the heats. Matthew Lawson (Gateshead) made it through to the final of the under-20 60m where he finished seventh but was rewarded with a new pb of 7.17s. Comments are closed.
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AuthorBill McGuirk is the North East's top athletics correspondent. NECAA Chairman and official, Bill can be found at all local athletics events supporting the sport he loves. Archives
January 2023
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