Northern Athletics U17 & U15 Championships, Leigh, 29th and 30th May 2010

Report by Matt Hammond

Scunthorpe youngsters shine in the rain

Six young members of Scunthorpe and District athletic club were among young athletes from as far afield as Newcastle and Derby who made the journey west to Leigh athletics club in Lancashire, for the Northern Counties under 17 and under 15 championships. The championships were held over 2 days, but unfortunately the weather was the opposite of the previous weekend’s heat wave and day 1 saw wet and cold conditions.

The first event of the championship saw Anthony GILLATT kick the championships off in fine style by winning a bronze in the under 15 boys Hammer. Anthony has recently been to Hull with coach Matt HAMMOND to train with Dave SMITH the 1986 Common wealth games hammer champion. This has seen Anthony make an immediate improvement and he broke 30m for the first time. With more trips planned in the coming months hopefully Anthony can improve on his top 50 national ranking. This wasn’t the end to Anthony’s championships as he had also entered the Triple Jump, but he was left in the strange position of been the only entry, so was guaranteed the gold medal. Although he couldn’t quite manage the distance he achieved the previous week at Scunthorpe the records will show him as Northern champion.

There was another medal to come on day 1 from Alice KAYE. Over the previous week Alice has had excellent performances over 100 m, 200m, 300m, 400m and 300 hurdles, so was spoilt for choice. She decided on the 300m and 100m this time, unfortunately Alice ended up in a very fast heat of the 100m and despite finishing in 4th place just outside her personal best she didn’t progress to the final. But better luck was to come in the 300m, she initially knocked half a second off her best to finish second in her heat to progress to the final before knocking nearly another second of her best in the final to be rewarded with a bronze medal and moved up to 17th in the national rankings.

Also competing in the 300m was Freya BRADSHAW, who finished 6th in the same heat as Alice in the 300m, then finished 8^th in the final of the long jump. Alice’s sister Laura also competed in the championships and managed to knock nearly 10 seconds off her 1500m best to finish 15th in a very fast race. The final competitor on day 1 saw Elicia BONES finish 6^th in the shot. 

Day 2 saw brighter and warmer conditions and more medals for Scunthorpe in the form of Kate PATTSION  who started the day with a new personal best and a silver medal in the Discus , when she broke 30m for the first time which is a club record and is further than the under 17 and u20 women’s club records. It also moved her up to 7th in the national rankings. She then rounded the championships off with a 3rd place in the Shot, although she will be slightly disappointed not to break the 10 metres again which ranks her as 17th in the country. When you consider that Kate is at the bottom of the age group and will still be in the under 15 age group next year the club can no doubt expect further medals in the years to come.

U15 Boys