Trafford AC – Combined Events Classic (28th/29th Sep 2024); Woodbank Park, Stockport
Congratulations to all three Macclesfield Harriers (Ben Hunsley, Samuel Savage and Ollie Mills-Kidals) who recently competed in the Combined Events Classic at Woodbank Park over the weekend of 28th & 29th Sept.
For the U13s and U15s there was a pentathlon, with all five events taking place on the same day. For the U17s there was an octathlon, with four events over two consecutive days. Details of their individual performances are given below.
U13 Boys
Ben showed great courage and determination, entering his first combined events competition, being one of the youngest athletes taking part. He started well in his 75m hurdles heat, coming second with a time of 14.91s. Next came the high jump where, despite the cold weather, he cleared 1.30m, well short of his PB. In the long jump, he was 5th overall with a fabulous jump of 4.09m. In his weakest event, Ben threw a distance of 5.20m scoring useful points in the shot. In the final event (800m) pacing was always going to be an issue in his first attempt at this distance, however he ran faster than his target in a time of 2m57s. Overall he came a very creditable 9th out of 15 competitors, scoring 1090 points and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
U15 Boys
Samuel got off to a great start in the 80m hurdles, coming 2nd in his heat with a time of 13.99s. It wasn’t long before Samuel was in the shotput circle beating his previous season’s best of 9.48m with a throw of 10.38m. He was really happy with this as had been training hard to throw over 10m (and was trying to beat his dad’s pb of 10.43m!). After the first 2 events he was in 4th place out of the 11 competitors.
He was unable to match his season’s bests in the next 2 events (long and high jump) but finished strongly on his 800m run. Overall, Samuel finished 7th, with a total of 1753 points, up from 1106 points in his previous year as an U13. There was some stiff competition from across the north west, but it was a great experience and something to build on for next year when he will be in the 2nd year of his U15 age group.
U17 Boys
Ollie is relatively new to Macc Harriers and only started competing in June of this year, deciding over the summer that he wanted to become a decathlete. Ollie was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic in 2021, which is an ever-changing goalpost, but he is determined not to let it stop him from achieving his sporting goals.
On day 1 of his first octathlon, Ollie started strongly in the long jump, coming 2nd overall with a leap of 5.93m. Next came discus (36.62m) and javelin (34.86m), finishing day 1 in 2nd place overall with a time of 56.53s in the 400m. He started day 2 with the same determination, getting a time of 15.84s in the 100m hurdles. Good results in the high jump (1.72m) and shot (10.23m) put him in a great position going into the final event. Ollie showed typical grit in the 1500m, crossing the line in a time of 5m4s, scoring an amazing 4273 points overall, never wavering from being in 2nd place throughout the full 8 events. A fantastic result and we look forward to watching his athletic development over the coming months.
