England Athletics National U15 and U17 Championships

 

After a 4 year absence the champs returned to Sheffield (formally known as 3 A's).  The top athletes from across the UK turned out, with a few competitors from Italy as well!

Hallamshire had 5 athletes competing over the two days and City had a few as well.  Great to see some non-competing Hallamshire athletes down there on the day to support their team mates.  Matt Jarvis and Lauren popped down on Saturday to keep Sam amused while he was waiting for his race: Richard Spooner and Tom Butler were down on Sunday.

There was some serious competition in all races on both days, with English schools Champions along with Northern, Midland and Southern champs.  Most finals gave fastest times this year and the championship records were broken in several events.

Here’s how the Hallamshire contingent did.

U15 Boys 100m

Sam Barnsley came 2nd in his heat with a time of 11.51 and 4th in the final with 11.56 - the winning time was 11.17 being the fastest time this year.

U15 Boys 400m

Very tough race with everyone having some sort of title apart from Sam.

Sam Barnsley came 2nd in his heat with a time of 52.32 and 5th in the final with 52.82 - the winning time was 51.24

U15 Girls 800m

Calli Thackery came 1st in her heat, going into the final with the fastest time at 2:13.42

It was an interesting final with 3 girls fighting it out to win. Calli came second with a time of 2:13.57 - the winning time was 2:12.90.

U17 Women 800m

This was a tough event with the bar being set very high by one girl.

Rebecca Newton came 6th in her heat with a time of 2:19.15.  Sadly, it was not fast enough to progress to the semi-finals.  The winning time was 2:09.78.

U17 Women 5k walk

This was an excellent competition with 4 walks being conducted simultaneously.  No-one was sure knowing who was in which race - not even the competitors!

Kathryn Granger came 3rd in the final with a time of 28:19.42 - the winning time was 26:28.75.

U17 men 800m

A tough race with many competitors.  The final included the English schools champion and the International Schools champion.

Richard Spooner came 5th in his heat with a time of 1:58.8. Not quite fast enough for the next round with the winning time being 1:55.46 sec. (the English Schools champ got it).

Hopefully we'll have even more Hallamshire athletes competing next year!

It was an excellent two days, but the most dramatic event was surely the hurdles - with a competitor falling over in every heat.  Luckily no one was badly hurt.  Some got up and finished the race with applause from the crowd and their competitors!

Full results and report are at http://www.englandathletics.org/events/under-17--under-15-championships/