Track & Field
West Yorkshire league
The West Yorkshire Track & Field Championships was a fitting end to the regular track season for many of Halifax's young athletes. Having comfortably secured a place in North 1 West for next season, after some fantastic performances in the National Young Athletes League, the pressure was off and as a result Halifax Harriers collected no fewer than 23 medals, their highest for a many a year, surpassing last years total of 13 by a considerable margin. With a flourishing junior section medals were picked up in all age groups, highlighting the marked improvement achieved over the last 12 months.
On balance this years male athletes have fought back hard to redress last year's successes mainly from the girls. A new crop of U11 boys dominated the Championships as well as picking up all three individual awards and the combined team award based on the whole seasons performances. Emerson James won both his 75m final in 11.3s and his 600m final in a time of 1.49.5s and was a very impressive overall champion. Joseph Beadsley who was 2nd in the 75m given the same time, took gold in the long jump with 3.69m and was 2nd overall producing some stirring performances. Martin Howard was third in the shot putt with 5.86m, finishing 3rd overall having steadily gone about the business of accumulating his points tally round by round. In the U13 boys Daniel Beadsley won his 80m final in 10.80 seconds adding this title to his County title earlier in the year. Daniel had a bronze in the discus with a throw of 19.70m. Cameron Lake was 3rd in the 80m final and achieved a second bronze for his 1.25m in the high jump. Harry Mallinson took gold in the 200m with a determined run in a time of 24.8s and silver in the 100m with a time of 12.4s running below par. Jerome Castelow made the most of his opportunity in the1500m by taking gold after none of the other competitors were able to establish an advantage although the race changed lead on several occasions before Jerome stamped down his own authority. In the U17 section Patrick Costello had two silver medals, one for the 100m in a time of 12.3s and the other in long jump with a leap of 5.28m. Chris Sage consolidated his position in the 800m event and took silver in 02.04.6 just 0.3 of a second off the gold medal place. Kieron Royston had a bronze in the 400m with a time of 55.8s finishing just behind the strong Dan Cheeseman from Holmfirth. Across all the age groups Halifax boys finished 1st overall thanks to their fine individual performances ahead of Wakefield in 2nd and Spenborough in 3rd.
Not to be completely overshadowed the girls did have their moments too. In The U13's Hannah Walker and Regan Smith were 2nd and 3rd in the overall individual standings and have fought long and hard throughout the season. Hannah took the 800m crown in a time of 02.33.0 adding this to her Yorkshire County title in May. Regan was agonisingly close from winning, finishing 2nd just 0.5s behind. Hannah had silver in the long jump with a leap of 4.36m and was a finalist in the 80m. In the U15's Kate Wasyliw, the clubs premier junior sprinter took gold in 100m final in a time of 12.4s and 0.1 outside the existing record set in 1980. Kate was narrowly beaten into 2nd place in the 200m final, literally caught on the line by West Yorkshire teammate Ciara Flannery who won in a time of 25.5s establishing a new West Yorkshire record in the process. Rebecca Sullivan maintained her solid field event form grabbing two silver medals from a leap of 1.48m in the high jump and 4.57m in the long jump. There were no U17 ladies competing in the finals but overall the ladies were placed 3rd, very respectable considering the smaller numbers competing this year.
Report by John Wasyliw on behalf of Halifax Harriers.