Medal winners just class
NORTH ATHLETES EARN TOP MARKS WITH SUCCESS AT SCHOOLS’ CHAMPIONSHIPS
THE region’s young athletes were in top-class form at the English Schools’ Championships in Birmingham, bringing home a host of medals.
Aptly named the ‘Schools’ Olympics’ with the cream of the nation’s young athletes in attendance, Durham athletes came away with two golds and a bronze medal - while Northumberland topped the podium once as well as receiving two silver awards.
Twelve months ago at the same Alexander Stadium, Dan Joyce (Durham) claimed a gold medal after winning the junior boys’ 800 metres .
He moved up an age group this year and while he was one of the youngest to make the final this time round he still showed his rivals a clean pair of heels to win the two-lap intermediate’ boys contest in 1min 54.65secs - just outside his life-time best figures of 1:54.3.
Next up to receive a gold medal was Jack Halpin (Durham) - which did not come as too much of a surprise as he has topped the British under-15 shot put rankings all season.
After just missing out on a medal last year after finishing in fourth place, Halpin, who has been undefeated in all shot competitions this year, beat off his challengers this time round with a winning put of 14:66 metres - nearly a metre ahead of the silver medallist.
While Joyce and Halpin did not set new personal bests in their medalwinning performances, that certainly was not the case for Durham’s final medallist, Amelia Bateman.
In 2015, when the championships were held in Gateshead, Bateman finished third in the under-15 high jump contest after a clearance of 1:69 metres.
This time round, competing in the under-19 age group, she cleared 1:78m which was a new lifetime best rewarded with another bronze medal.
Such was the high standard of the competition Bateman finished on the same height as the silver medallist but was beaten on countback. while the winner was accredited with a winning jump of 1:81m.
Apart from the medal winners, Durham had numerous other cred- itable performances - intermediate pole vaulter Molly Elliott finishing in fourth place with a clearance of 3:40m.
Will Bellamy ran six seconds quicker than ever before to also be fourth in the intermediate boys’ 3,000m in 8:47.42.
In a blanket finish to the senior girls’ 200m, Jasmine Moss claimed fifth in 24.96s while in the same age group Georgia Kyle took ninth place in the shot with a best put of 36:79m.
Tia Anderson ran a pb of 40.12s to make it through to the final of the intermediate girls’ 300m where she was fifth (40.32s) and there were sixth-place finishes for Henry Johnson in the 1,500m (4:05.57) and Sam Gorman, who long-jumped 6:52m.
Durham had two representatives in the senior shot put competition, David Todd sixth (12:93m) and James Dodds seventh with a put of 11:89m.
For Northumberland it was left to Sam Charlton, a pupil at Heaton Manor School, to claim the bragging rights by winning the intermedate boys’ 3,000m.
Charlton took up the running going into the final kilometre and eased away to win by more than five seconds in his second-fastest time of 8:34.15.
While Charlton’s race was a straight final, Joy Eze (St Mary’s RC) had to overcome a tough heat (25.33s) before making it through to the final and a silver medal.
It looked as though the Gateshead Harrier was on her way to clinching gold - only to be caught with just metres to go.
Nevertheless, Eze was rewarded with a huge pb of 24.76s which moves her into second place in the UK rankings behind the girl who claimed the gold medal, Greater Manchester’s Success Eduan.
Northumberland’s final medalwinning performance came in the intermediate boys’ shot put.
Andrew Knight delivered a huge effort of 16:87m to claim the runners-up award - a huge improvement on last year where he finished fifth with a best effort of 13:73m.
Other notable Northumberland performances included a fourthplace finish for James Wordsworth in the inter boys’ discus (44:96m).
Rory Leonard and Kieran Hedley finished sixth and 12th places respectively in the senior boys’ 1,500m, Leonard with 3:57.46 and Hedley 4:05.32 - though Hedley produced a pb of 3:56.80 in the heats.
In the junior girls’ 1,500m Ines Curran was sixth with a new pb of 4:40.49.
Durham’s India Pentland was eighth in the inter girls’ over the same distance in 4:39.99 and North’s Rhian Purves 12th in the senior girls’ race in 4:56.55.
Joyce, Charlton and Knight have been named in the England Schools’ under-17 team for this weekend’s Home International which is hosted by Scotland at Grangemouth.