Kilty is quick to impress on home ground
WORLD 60 metres Indoor champion Richard Kilty wowed the crowd with a superb exhibition of sprinting at the North East Counties Championships at Middlesbrough Sports Village, writes BILL McGUIRK.
The Teessider, a relay gold medallist at the recent Commonwealth Games, lined up in the 200 metres at the impressive venue used for the championships for the first time.
Kilty, aptly named the Teesside Tornado, shot out of the starting blocks to quickly open up a sizeable lead before excellerating down the finishing straight to win easing up in 21.17secs - a time just outside the championship best of 21.11s.
There were other notable successes over the two-day championship among the senior competitors.
Though there were no new records set, there were numerous goodf eforkances among the younger athletes involved.
Nisha Desai again won both the 400m flat and 400m hurdles.
There was also a double gold for Shona Haston, who came out on top in both the 800m and 1,500m events.
Morpeth’s James Young was also successful in both the 800m and 1,500m.
Durham City’s Michael Grimes bounced back after being away from the sport for a few years to claim the 5,000m.
Among the filed events, former Gateshead athlete Crag Sturrock struck gold again in the shot while Alan Toward claimed another victory in the discus.
Over the two days there were 11 new championship-best performances which augurs well for the future of the sport in the region. ■■DON’T miss a report on and pictures of the junior recordbreakers at the North East Counties Championships in Grassroots Sport on Thursday night.