Luke Harreld is Northern Masters Champion and Fantastic Four Compete at English Age Group Championships

It was a glorious gold for Luke Harreld on Sunday competing in the Northern Masters Championships at Trafford. Running in the M35 800m he was in third place at the bell and then moved up to second entering the home straight. He battled hard over the last 100m and his effort was rewarded with a victory in 2:02.0.

Four of Bury AC’s young athletes made the trip to Birmingham over the weekend to compete in the England Athletics Age Group Championships. The first to compete, on the Friday afternoon, was Ben Clarke, taking part in the under 17 men’s javelin. He enjoyed his usual tussle with Rugby’s Charlie Cook, who, up until the last throw had the edge on Ben, his 56.85 throw just ahead of Ben’s 56.32 fourth round effort. However, on the final throw Ben hurled the javelin out to 58.97, a new personal best and enough to secure him fifth place in the competition and beat his rival Cook. It was a superb competition overall, with the first three athletes all throwing over 60 metres.

On Saturday Isabella Robinson competed in the under 15 girls 75m hurdles. She was drawn out in lane 9 in the fifth heat but produced a strong run to cross the line in 12.33 into a slight headwind. Her fifth place and time were enough to progress her to the semi-finals. She was drawn in lane 9 again for her semi-final later on in the afternoon. However, she had to settle for ninth place with 12.39. It was a superb experience for the youngster to compete against the best in the country.

On Sunday it was Evie Elliott’s time to compete, taking on the under 17 women’s 300m hurdles. She was drawn in lane 3 of the first heat and ran well to take fourth place with 47.56. Unfortunately her time was just not fast enough to qualify her for the final.

Decathlete Oliver Cooper competed over both Saturday and Sunday in the under 17 men’s event. He started well, recording a new PB of 12.38 to take sixth in his heat of the 100m. Next up was the long jump where he produced a best leap of 5.83 to place thirteenth. It was his furthest ever jump but the positive wind speed ruled it out as a personal best. The shot put was the third event with Oliver taking sixth place with 11.93, just outside his season’s best. The fourth event was the high jump, with Oliver placing seventh in his pool with a season’s best of 1.57. The final event on the first day was the 400m with Oliver producing a storming run to take third in his heat with 58.03. Sunday morning got under way with the 100m hurdles with Oliver placing sixth in his heat with 15.03, just 7 hundredths outside his personal best. The discus was the seventh event and Oliver placed sixth with a season’s best throw of 34.12. The pole vault, Oliver’s strongest discipline, was next and he produced a season’s best vault of 4.00m, to place second overall. The penultimate event was the javelin with Oliver producing yet another PB of 41.75 to place eighth. The final event was the gruelling 1500m with Oliver recording another PB to cross the line in 5:27.66. This secured him in tenth place in the competition with a huge PB of 5381 points, and securing a cherished win over northern rival Tristan Lamprecht of Macclesfield.

The previous weekend, 12 year old Ethan Statham showed a clean pair of heels to everyone at the Oldham Parkrun. It was his first time running the Alexandra Park course and he breezed around in 18.04, more than 20 seconds clear of the runner up.