National Junior Athletes League - Match 2 - Sheffield - 23rd May 2010

Report by Matt Hammond

SCUNTHORPE BEAT HUMBERSIDE  RIVALS

Round 2 of the National Junior league for Athletes under the age of 20 saw Scunthorpe and district athletic club head to Sheffield to the Woodburn road track which was originally built in the 90’s as the warm up track for the world student games. After finishing 4th in the first match the aim of team manager Dave HARMES is to maintain that performance over the 4 matches and keep their status in the league. With this in mind a team of 16 athletes made the short trip to Sheffield, unfortunately they had been hit by a few last minute withdrawals due to GCSE exams and even heat stroke. It was to be the heat that was to play a major factor on the day with the temperature hitting 28 degrees making conditions difficult for every body especially the middle and long distance competitors. As with the first match the Scunthorpe team was bolstered by several athletes from Lincoln who have joined Scunthorpe due to their club not competing in the league.

It was to be one of the under 17 athletes who made an instant impact, when Alice KAYE made her debut for the season over 400m. Alice has competed in the 300m and 300m hurdles over recent weeks showed her speed and strength is improving all the time when she broke 60 seconds for the first time. This immediately ranks her in the top 20 under 17 athletes in the country. She then ran in an exciting 200m which saw her hang on for a traffic win over a fast finishing Wakefield athlete with both been given identical times. Alice finished her day claiming second place in the B long jump and running the last leg in the 4x400m.

Another under 17 athlete making his debut over a new event was Lewis STONES who stepped up from his favoured 1500m to run in the 3,000m. Due to the heat it wasn’t to be a day for very fast times and the race turned into a last lap sprint between 3 athletes and it was to be Lewis who despite been the youngest competitor out paced his older rivals to win. The only slight disappointment was that he was only 2 second off breaking 10 minutes.

One of Scunthorpe’s established athletes Josh BONES was to have a good day in the heat when he won both the Triple Jump and the Long Jump, and it was to be his less favoured event the Long Jump which saw him set a new personal best and push him into the top 50 ranking to go alongside his top 20 triple jump ranking.

As always at league meetings the athletes who take on extras events or a large number of events always push the points totals up, with this in mind Tom CARLYON taking on the 100, 200 and 400m with in the space of 3 hours should get a mention along with Bethan HAMMOND and Laura KAYE who both run the 800m in new personal bests then lined up for the 1500m and after only 30 minutes rest then ran a leg in the 4x400m. But the athlete who would probably get the team member of the day award is Elicia BONES who is a talented thrower but was persuaded to run the 100m and earn points for the team.

The final score of the day saw the team finish 4th again beating local rivals Hull and Cleethorpes , when earning 279 points one more than they did in the first match, which could be described as Elicia’s point in the 100m.

After the event Dave HARMES said ‘This was another good performance, from a young team. The majority of the girls are still under 17 and there will only be one athlete who will move into the senior rankings next year. So I am hopefully we will go from strength to strength over the next few years’