Youth Development League – Round 1 (20th April 2024); Whitton Park, Blackburn
The Youth Development League has kicked off with a bang this season! Unfortunately, very wet and boggy ground resulted in the cancellation of long throw events in the first round at Witton Park, Blackburn in April but this didn’t dampen the spirits of the relatively small team of Macclesfield Harriers U13s and U15s who put in some excellent performances and PBs. Overall, Macclesfield scored 326 points, coming 2nd to Menai by just 2 points.
U13 Girls
In the U13Gs, on the track Annabelle Brown won both the 75m and 150m A races with Georgia Evans winning the 150m B race. Tilly Matthews ran her first 800m race with great conviction; Emma Bedoya and Lauren Harper placed 2nd in both 70m Hurdles races. There were also some great performances in the long jump and high jump – in both events Georgia came 2nd in pool A and Emma came 1st in pool B. Tilly and Lauren both threw great PBs in the Shot.
U13 Boys
Despite clashing with the football season, two of our young athletes brought the sunshine with them for the U13Bs team. Ben Hunsley and George Allen both jumped well in the Long Jump, with Ben winning the pool A match (with a PB of 4.03m) and George coming 2nd in pool B (despite not being allowed to measure his run-up due to a clash with the 1200m). In the High Jump, Ben got a PB (1.30m) in his debut outdoor competition, winning pool A. There was more success on the track, with George coming 3rd in the 1200m A race and Ben winning his 75m A race.
U15 Girls
There were some fantastic debut performances in round 1 for the U15Gs, with Flo Beard, Ava Wragg and Connie O’Doherty. all competing for their first time in the YDL. Each girl competed in 3 events, winning important points for the club and posting PBs. Flo came 3rd in the 200m A race, 1st in the 300m B race and 3rd in the Shot Put. Ava excelled in all events, winning the 100m A race, 300m A race and Long Jump. Connie came 3rd in the 100m B race, 2nd in the 200m B race and 3rd in the High Jump.
U15 Boys
The U15Bs fielded a strong team of 9 athletes for round 1. There were some fine performances on the track, with Christopher Melvin securing first place in the 100m A race with a fabulous PB of 12.3s and Oliver Stewart coming 2nd in the B race with a PB. Tristan Lamprecht dominated the 80m Hurdles race with an excellent time of 11.8s and ran superbly in the 100m, although his time of 12.1s wouldn’t count due to the 3-event limit for U15s. In the 200m, Oliver came 3rd in the A race and Tomas Bedoya came 1st in the B race. In the 300m, there were two more PBs, with Samuel Savage coming 2nd in the A race and Eric Dickinson coming 2nd in the B race. Eric showed determination with a sub-3 min PB in the 800m, coming in 3rd in the A race, closely followed by Luke Lamont coming in 2nd on his debut for Macclesfield in the B race. In the 4x100m, the team comprising Joshua Jones, Christopher, Samuel and Tristan was narrowly beaten into 2nd place by Menai with an excellent time of 52.5s.
In the field, there more great performances with Christopher throwing over 10 metres to come 1st in pool A of the shot, Tristan winning pool A of the High Jump with a PB of 1.60m, Tomas coming first with a PB in pool A of the Long Jump, Samuel winning pool B in the Long Jump (PB) and coming 2nd in pool B of the shot put (PB).
Overall, a fantastic result for the U15 Boys, with their combined efforts securing 2nd place for Macclesfield, trailing Menai by just 2 points.
Round 2 (19th May 2024); Macclesfield
The sun shone again for the home match in Round 2. Macclesfield fielded a much larger team across all age groups, storming to victory with a massive 585 points in the match, leap-frogging Menai to move into a commanding 1st place in the league with 911 points overall.
U13 Girls
In the U13Gs, Annabelle Brown was narrowly beaten in the 75m A race but won a convincing 150m in the same consistent time as Blackburn. Georgia Evans ran an amazing PB to win the 75m B race. Iona Fisher also sprinted in the 150m and was joined for the 800m by teammates Kjerstin Kramer-Beale (with a strong PB and 1st place in the B race), Tilly Matthews and Kira Corfield. Alice Hodgson and Eryn Mitchell toiled in the heat in their first 1200m and Eryn and Lauren Harper put in good debut performances in the 70m hurdles.
In the field, Georgia and Emma both jumped fantastic PBs in the Long Jump to place 3rd (A) and 2nd (B) respectively. They also scored valuable points in the High Jump with Emma placing 2nd (A) and Georgia 1st (B). Annabelle and Kira (improving her PB on the previous week’s performance) placed 2nd in both Shot pools. In the Javelin, Lauren and Phoebe threw amazing PBs to place 2nd (A) and 1st (B) respectively.
U13 Boys
In the U13Bs field events, Ben Hunsley and George Allen both got huge PBs in the Long Jump, winning the A & B pools. Elliot Jones got a fantastic PB in the shot put, coming 2nd in the A pool against strong opposition and Oscar Furness gained maximum points in the B pool. Ben also came 2nd in the High Jump despite a distracting wind.
On the track there were new events and distances on offer to those moving up from U11s. George Sellars and Oscar competed in 75m Hurdles for the first time, finishing 2nd in the A race and 1st in the B race respectively. The 75m saw more PB’s for Ben and Elliot with Gus Fisher winning the 150m in a great time. On a hot day for 800m and 1200m we saw all our boys run good times with George S and Gus both coming in the top three in their races. Our 4x100m relay team (George A, Gus, George S and Ben) rounded off a fabulous day with a win.
U15 Girls
The U15 Girls had a strong team with a total of 11 athletes competing, each girl taking on 2 or 3 events. A total of 12 track places and 12 field places were covered by the girls in total, many taking on new events. We had lots of new athletes at this meet, some competing for Macclesfield for the 1st time and some literally competing for the 1st time, and they all did brilliantly.
A couple of special mentions to Connie O’Doherty and Eve O’Donnell for taking on the pole vault, Alice Mendham for her massive jump of 4.97m to win the Long Jump and to our relay team for their impressive fight for 2nd place.
U15 Boys
The U15 boys had another good turnout, with 11 boys competing and 23 events entered. Tristan Lamprecht got PBs in both the 80m hurdles and 100m, winning both races and getting a great PB in the Pole Vault. Christopher Melvin put in strong performances again in the 100m and 200m and won the discus on his debut. Sam Savage had another strong day, winning both the discus and shot put and came 3rd in the 300m. Tomas Bedoya won the High Jump with a fabulous PB of 1.56m and came a close 2nd in the Long Jump. Joshua Jones gained more points for the team in 300m and won the Long Jump B pool. Oliver Stewart got his PB (without wind assistance) in the 100m. In the 800m, there were dogged runs from both Bobby Tomlinson (2nd in the A race) and Eric Dickinson. In the field, Daniel Gutschow, Eric Dickinson and Luke Lamont all scored useful points in their debuts in the shot put and hammer and Bobby achieved a fantastic PB in the High Jump. The day rounded off well with two teams competing in the 4x100m and 4x300m relays.