UK Youth Development League – Match 1 Report

Stockport Harriers Under-13 & Under-15 Squads made an outstanding start to their summer campaign and push for promotion in the UK Youth Development League with a landslide points victory in the first of four matches, at Ashton under Lyne on Saturday. A points score of 707 saw Stockport not only win the match by 130 points from second placed East Cheshire Harriers but also set a UK Youth Development League record by becoming the first team to accumulate over 700 points in one match.

With the whole team strong across every event, highlighting individuals is difficult, but a mention must be made of the six events where Stockport made clean sweeps, winning both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ Competitions. Cameron Stewart (Coach: Mike Frost) and Matthew Ainley (Mike Frost) took maximum points in the Under-15 Boys 80m Hurdles and Natasha Harrison (Pete Torrance) and Francesca Carosi (Andy Owen) took full points in the Under-15 Girls 300m. Emily Jarad (Joe Frost) and Katie Waterworth (Joe Frost) won the ‘A’ and ‘B’ competitions in the Under-15 Girls Long Jump and Rebecca Muirhead (Catherine Muirhead) and Alice Giller (Mike Frost) replicated this result in the Under-15 Girls Shot. Catherine Giller (Mike Frost) and Holly Benson (Mike Frost) won the first events of the day with a clean sweep in the Under-13 Girls 70m Hurdles and Anna Mounteney and Catherine Giller also took full points in the Under-13 Girls 75m.

There were many more wins for Stockport Athletes throughout the day with Matthew Connor (Andrew Mihranian) winning the Under-15 Boys ‘B’ Long Jump and Jack Lynam (Mike Frost) winning the ‘B’ High Jump competition in the same age group. Connor Keyes (Mike Doyle) won the ‘B’ race in the Under-13 Boys 800m while Flynn Walsh (Mike Doyle) ran an excellent race to win the Under-13 Boys 1500m with a fantastic dip finish, also dipping under five minutes for the first time. Harry Miller-Reedman (Andrew Mihranian) took full points in the Under-13 Boys Javelin ‘B’ competition, while there was also a personal best for William Culmer (Andrew Mihranian), throwing over twenty metres in the ‘A’ competition.

Takiah Brownlow (Cliff Oldham) set personal bests in both the Under-15 Girls 100m and 200m, running 13.9 to win the ‘B’ race in the former. Becky Jones (Andy Owen) ran 5:15.7 to win the Under-15 Girls 1500m ‘B’ race and Alice Giller (Mike Frost) ran a personal best of 13.8 to win the Under-15 Girls 75m Hurdles impressively. Amy Jackson (Joe Frost) cleared 1.30m to win the Under-15 Girls ‘B’ High Jump. Holly Benson (Mike Frost) ran 21.5 to win the Under-13 Girls 150m ‘B’ Race and in the same age group Evie Wild (Andy Owen) ran a 2:34.8 personal best for second in the 800m ‘A’ race and Chloe Rogers (Pete Torrance) also ran an personal best with 2:34.2 to win the ‘B’. There were wins in the Under-13 Girls Long and High Jumps for Megan Lasseter (Catherine Muirhead).

Some exciting relays concluded what was a great day with a brilliant atmosphere amongst the Team. In the Under-13 Girls 4x100m a team of Anna Mounteney, Catherine Giller, Megan Lasseter and Holly Benson stormed to the win in 57.7 and were just one tenth of a second off the Club record that has stood for almost fifteen years. A strong Under-15 Girls team of Amy Jackson, Katie Waterworth, Emily Jarad and Takiah Brownlow just missed the win, but were a close second to East Cheshire with 54.7 seconds. There were wins in both the Boys sprint relays with a team of Fabio Carosi, George Buchan, Matthew Houlden and Abrahim Saad winning the Under-13 race in a photo finish and a team of Jack Lynam, Ahmed Fareed, Ben Oehle and Robert Stokoe winning the Under-15 Boys race. The final races of the day were the Under-15 4x300 Relays which saw the sprinters and middle distance athletes come together. A team of Jess Connors, Becky Jones, Naomi Sinclair and Francesca Carosi were third in the Girls Race and Josh Seymour, Matthew Connor, Robert Stokoe and Ben Oehle finished second to Border Harriers in the Boys race.

There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the day with all the Athletes vocally supporting their team-mates. It was great to see so many Athletes stay around after their events to support the rest of the team. Well done to all the Athletes who took part and earned points for the Club and to all the Coaches, Officials, Parents, Friends and Family who came to support the Team.

We can look forward to building on a great start to the season in the second match, which will be at Victoria Park, Warrington on Saturday 31st May. Athletes should look out for the team selection over the next two weeks.