County wonder kids beat the cream of the north
Last updated 11:46, Tuesday, 16 September 2008
CUMBRIA’s young athletics stars rose magnificently to the challenge against six other Border counties in the end of season meeting at Carlisle to storm away and win the match.
Against the cream of the north-east and southern Scotland, Cumbria’s Under 15 and Under 17 year olds led from start to finish in a close battle with Tees Valley, finally pulling comfortably away over the last few events, 279 to Tees Valley’s 254.
It was a highly successful meeting that produced well in excess of 60 personal best performances overall, with almost half the Cumbria team producing 20 of them.
“The Cumbrians showed real commitment and took athletics to another level in the county,” said team manager Gwenda Ward. “The huge number of personal bests shows how important this level of competition is to the sport’s development. We gave all these young people a chance to excel and show what they can do and they certainly rose to the challenge.”
Stars of the meeting for Cumbria were the team captains, Nick Miller (Border Harriers) from Carlisle and Chelsie Browbank (Carlisle Aspatria) of Wigton. Miller set a new personal best of 52.48 metres in winning the Under 17 Hammer.
He also scored valuable points for the county coming second in the Discus and Javelin. Browbank easily won her speciality 200 metres in 26.0 secs and raced the 100 metres in fine style to set a new personal best of 12.58 to head the north-west rankings.
They received the Unite Trophy kindly donated by the Unite Union.
Luke Ingham, 14, of Kendal sliced almost five seconds off his personal best to win the Under 15 800 metres in 2:11.33 and Fiona Laurie (Border Harriers) from Brampton shattered her previous best in the Under 17 300 metres winning in 42.47 seconds and added 15 centimetres to her best in the long jump.
Other Cumbria winners were:Natasha Wooley: Under 15 Girls Javelin (29.61m); Alex Taylor: Under 15 Boys Javelin (36.82 m); Kirsty Norwood:
Under 15 Girls High Jump (1.51m);Josh Richardson: Under 17 Men Triple Jump (12.50m); Katy Barnard: Under 17 Women Discus (27.22m); Laura Valliant: Under 17 Women 1500m: 5:06.21; James Bowness: Under 17 Men’s 1500m (4:10.62); Abbie Hetherington: Under 15 Girls 1500m (4:56.87).
Sprint doubles were won by Dumfries and Galloway’s outstanding Scottish sprinter Hope Robertson (100m -12.70 secs; 200 - 25.66 secs);
James Lovatt of Tyne & Wear who won the 100 metres in 11.19 secs, a personal best and the 200 metres in 22.63 secs and Lee Burrell (100m – 11.75; 200m – 23.91).
Kayleigh Mill (Tees Valley) easily won the Under 17 Women’s Hammer with 45.88 metres and Chloe Gill the Under 17 Triple Jump with 11.11 metres.
Team Result: 1st Cumbria 279; 2nd Tees Valley 254; 3rd Tyne & Wear 244.5; 4th Northumberland 180; 5th Scottish Borders 178; 6th Durham 163; 7th Dumfries & Galloway 152.5
