Victorious Joyce is a class act at ‘Olympics’
Dan’s the man with top display at Alexander Stadium
FORTUNES were mixed for the region’s young athletes at the English Schools’ Championships at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.
However, Durham representative Daniel Joyce came top of the class in the ‘Schools Olympics’ with a storming victory in the junior boys’ 800 metres.
The St Thomas More, Blaydon pupil stamped his authority in the final with a devastating turn of speed with 250 metres to go which by the line had stretched his advantage to around 20 metres.
The North East Counties 300 metres gold medalist showed his delight after his victory with tears of joy after crossing the finish in 1min 58.89secs.
Joyce, who tops his age group in the UK rankings, will now represent England Schools in this weekend’s international in Dublin.
He will be joined by Durham team-mate Henry Johnson and Northumberland’s Ruaridh Lang.
Both Johnson (Houghton Kepier) and Lang finished runners-up in their respective 1,500m and discus events, subsequently gaining England Schools’ selection.
After making it through the final, Johnson was always in contention and comfortably held off his rivals in the chase for an England place to finish in 4:09.05.
Johnson was one of three youngsters from Houghton-based Kepier Academy to represent Durham - the others Jonny Langley (intermediate boys’ 1500m steeplechase) and Will Bellamy (junior boys’ 1500m).
Lang had produced a new lifetime best of 47:91m to claim the silver medal in the intermediate boys’ section.
Only junior and intermediates are selected for the schools’ international which was a shame as Northumberland’s Jason Nicholson finished second in the 110m hurdles.
After a sluggish start, Nicholson was close to last to rise at the first hurdle but managed to overhaul everyone accept Cameron Fillery (Sussex) with just two-hundredths of a second separating the duo at the line - Fillery winning in 13.76s against Nicholson’s 13.78s.
Also in the senior age group section, there were bronze medals for Durham’s Jazmine Moss and William Curtis.
Moss (Durham High School) progressed through the rounds to finish third in the 200m with a new personal best of 24.36s while Curtis (Heworth Grange) also produced a lifetime best of 48.60s to claim third place in the 400m.
For Durham, Jack Halpin (Hermitage) finished in fourth place in the junior boys’ shot (13:22m) while Adam Ord (Greenfield) made it to the final of the 800m to finish eighth (2:05.11).
In the senior boys’ section David Todd (New College, Durham) was eighth in the shot competition (12:54m) while in the intermediate girls’ age group Rachel Bennett (Barnard Castle) claimed seventh in the 200m final (25.44s) after posting a new pb of 25.05s in the heats.
In the senior girls’ section Durham athletes fared well in the field events.
Claudia Burkes (Barnard Castle) finished ninth in the pole vault (3:50m), Kate Carmichael (QE Darlington) was seventh in the shot with 10:66m and Whickham School’s Georgia Kyle ended up ninth in the discus (36:41m).
For Northumberland, James Wordsworth finished fourth in the junior boys’ discus with a throw of 39:71m - just three centimetres off the bronze medalist.
Josh McKeown made the final of the 200m, where he finished in eighth place but was rewarded with a new pb of 23.21s.
In the intermediate boys’ section, Northumberland’s Andrew Knight was fifth in the shot contest (13:73m), Taylor Glover finished ninth in the 1,500m (4:05.73 and Rory Leonard took 11th in the 3,000m (8:54.09.
Bobbie Griffiths finished ninth in the intermediate girls’ javelin (40:41m) while team-mate Nichola Caygill produced a huge pb of 12.12s for fifth in the 100m final.