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Premier Division Young Athletes Match 5 of 5 – Sun 23rd July 2006 Preston Sports Arena In the final meeting of the 2006 UK Young Athletes Northern Premier League at Preston Sports Arena last weekend, Preston Harriers comfortably won their last match to confirm fifth place in the league. Preston finished the season on 16 match points - for the second year running just one point behind Leeds City who took the final national final qualifying position. The athlete-of-the-match awards on the track went to two of Preston’s growing crop of extremely talented young middle distance runners. Nathan Bibby winning the men’s track prize for a win in the 800m U17 men’s race in a time of 2:00.9 and Kate Hindle for her win in the U17 Women’s race in 2:13.8. It was particularly fitting that their prizes were awarded by British middle distance legend Steve Cram who was there in his capacity as coach at Morpeth and to see his son Marcus follow in Dad’s footsteps with a comfortable win in the U15 boy’s 1500m. In the field Katrina Hall won the female athlete-of-the-match award for her triple jump performance of 10.31m. In the first U17 men’s track event Ben Anthony (61.8s) and Liam Isherwood (66.2s) took maximum points in the 400m hurdles. This pattern was repeated several times on the track with Miles Manley (11.7s) and Carl Martin (12.1) in the 100m, Jonathan Harker (22.9s) and Miles Manley (23.3s) in the 200m, Nathan Bibby (2:00.9) and Matthew Lloyd (2:04.9) in the 800m. Nathan (4:11.7) then teamed up with Stephen Bennet (4:28.1) to gain maximum point in the 1500m. Highlight of the U17 men’s field events was a close high jump competition between the Preston athletes Cameron Gore (1.86m) and Liam Isherwood (1.80m) who both out jumped the opposition to gain maximum points. Earlier Harriet James (1.55m) and Hannah Lupton (1.50m) had dominated the U15 girl’s event to gain the maximum points. In the U15 boys event George Sharp won with a jump of 1.58m. In the U13’s Amy Lupton won the girls event with a leap of 1.40m, Jamie Gore came second in the boys with 1.35m and James Turner won the ‘B’ event with 1.30m. Back on the track, Mica Nottingham completed an impressive sprint double in the U17 women’s 100m (12.6s) and 200m (25.1s). Tom Bradbury replicated this double in the U13 boys 100m (13.9s) and 200m (27.6s). In the sprint hurdles, English School’s finalists Danielle Rooney (U17W 80mH - 12.0s) and Miles Manley (U17M – 100m -14.1s) gave outstanding demonstrations of hurdling technique with no serious competition. Jonathan Harker (11.07m) won the U17 Men’s shot; Adam Lesibera (36.98m) was first in the same age group in the Javelin. In the U15 boys Michael Porter won shot (10.42m) and Javelin (32.92m) and in the U13 boys making his debut Darren Evans putted 8.56m to win his event. Kayleigh Huggins (24.75m) in the U15 girl’s javelin comfortably won her event with a throw close to her best. Harriet James (5.16m) and Hannah Lupton (4.69m) teamed up again in the U15 girl’s long jump to produce maximum points with the two longest jumps. James Turner (4.29m) won the U13 boy’s event and Amy Lupton (4.09m) came first in the U13 girls. In the U15 girls 800m Sophie Fletcher (2:22.5) and Nichola Jackson (2:37.6) produced another maximum 8 points. Abigail Mackley (5:00.7) came a close second in the U15 girl’s 1500m with Ellen Buckley (5:22.1) the first counting ‘B’ athlete. Louisa Hodgson also ran well to gain two second places in the 100m (13.3s) and 200m (26.5s). In a high quality U13 girl’s 1200m race Jessica Crook put in a grade 2 performance to finish in 4:08.6 but had to settle for second place. Similarly Lauren Bugler achieved the same grade performance finishing in 2:33.0 in the U13 girls 800m and had to settle for 3rd place. Just behind Lauren, also with a grade 2 performance, and the first ‘B’ athlete was Rebecca Noblet in 2:35.9. Meeting 1 - Gateshead In their first Young Athletes League meeting of the season, Preston Harriers athletes travelled to Gateshead to face a tough fixture against Gateshead and Leeds – two of the four teams that finished ahead of them in the Premier Division last year – as well as newly promoted Macclesfield. On a cold, damp and windy day Preston finished in 3rd place in what was a high quality event with many Grade 1 performances. Surprisingly, given the conditions, many of Preston’s athletes achieved new personal bests, particularly in the middle distance events. In the under 13 Girls the outstanding performance was in the 800metres, where Lauren Bugler won the A race in 2.34.3 and Rebecca Morley the B in 2.42.5. Lauren also finished 2nd in the High Jump with a pb of 1.20m. The only other A winner in this age group was Jessica Crook with 4.15.9 in the 1200m, supported by Gemma Coleman 2nd B in 4.39.1. The under 15 girls also won A and 2nd B in their equivalent 1500m event, Ellen Buckley (5.14.4) and Nichola Jackson (5.30.6) both carrying their good cross country form into the track season. In the sprints, Sophie Ealand won the 200m A race in 27.5, with Grace Robertson 2nd B in 28.8. In the Long Jump Harriet James won the A with 4.93, and Hannah Lupton 2nd B with 4.63. But it was in the throws that Preston excelled in this age group, with Charlotte Newby 1st A in the Discus with 19.80m, and Kayleigh Huggins 1st Bb whilst, Kayleigh won Javelin A with 21.60, and Nichola Jackson 1st B with 13.56. In the Under 17’s Mica Nottingham won a sprint double, finishing the 100m in 12.9 and the 200m in 26.0. Once again the middle distance scored well, with Kate Hindle and Beth Goodwin first A and B respectively with times of 2.23.1 and 2.31.5. Another double win came in the Long Jump where Danni Rooney won A with 4.92 and Vicky Sparks B with 4.66. Danni also had her customary win in the 80m Hurdles, her 11.6 performance taking her to the top of the national rankings. Rebecca Ingham was 2nd B in the same event with a time of 12.8, 2nd A in the High jump with 1.55 and 2nd A in Shot with 8.72. The young team of under 13 boys are mostly at the bottom of their age group, and in this tough match achieved no wins, although Mackenzie Hull achieved a Graded performance in the Long Jump, finishing 3rd with 3.70m.Best performer in the under 15 boys was Michael Porter, who was 2nd in the A Shot with 9.84, and 2nd A javelin with 32.98.By contrast, there were plenty of winners in the under 17 boys, Adam Roberts in Triple Jump A with 11.92m, Cameron Gore 2nd B with 10.91. In throws, Stephen Porter won A javelin 44.71, A discus 37.67, and 2nd A Hammer 24.30, with Jonathan Harker winning the B with 31.01 and 2nd A shot 10.98 as well as 200m A in 23.8. Miles Manley won the 100m Hurdles convincingly in 13.8, and was unlucky to finish 2nd in the 400hurdles in 60.0. Once again in this age group the middle distance athletes excelled. Nathan Bibby won the 1500m A in 4.16.9 as well as 800m A in 2.00.9, with Matthew Lloyd 2nd B in 2.07.0. Overall, a good day, with good performances particularly in endurance and throwing events. The next two fixtures should be less demanding, and the team should be capable of achieving some outright wins in the coming months. |
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