It was a blistering hot day at Longford Park for the second round of the Lower age group YDL (for U13 and U15 age groups) on Saturday 17th July. There was a good turn out from the U15 girls and we had a representative in nearly all the events. Olivia Bagley started out for the team with her first race for a long time in the 75m Hurdles and she did a great job to get us going with a fifth place that was close and could easily have been higher. We then had our first personal best of the day for Marianne Knuckey coming second in her heat of the 200m. Isla Keay produced a determined 800m in a very strong field that must have been challenging in the heat. The 100m had three Macclesfield representatives. Millie Egerton, Phoebe Davidson and Eliza Duffy. The two 3rd places and a fourth across their heats earned the team strong points and Eliza and Phoebe both had personal bests. Millie`s race was particularly close with 3rd, 4th and 5th all being given the same time but Millie was awarded the third place. The 300m finished the individual events on the track for the U15 girls and in two challenging races Marianne came home in fourth and Matilda Birks finished second in her race. In the field events the U15 girls were again well represented with Lola Whitlock taking on three of the throwing events and earning the team significant points. Her Javelin throw was another personal best. In the same javelin event Marianne Knuckey came fourth. The long jump kept the momentum going for the team with Beth Wootton and Grace Allen again building the score for the team. The high jump saw another personal best from Millie Egerton to come 4th in an event where the winner achieved AAA grade 1 standard. All these results were good experience for the future with all but two of the U15 girls being in the younger half of the U15`s age group.
For the U15 boys in the tropical conditions. A small, enthusiastic, and talented team took to the track and field securing points for Macclesfield Harriers against some strong competition. Special mentions to Jake for his PB in the 300m and to Konrad for his strong and confident performances in his first competition for Macclesfield Harriers.
The U13 Boys team had some real highlights. Will Hammond and Stan Slater took part in the 75m and both got new personal bests. With both achieving the AAA grade 1 standard. We also had excellent results in the 150m with 2 further personal bests for Stan Slater and Oliver Stewart and again they achieved the AAA grade 1 standard. In the distance events Bobby Tomlinson knocked 6 seconds off his 1200m PB and was second in his race. In the field events the U13 boys also hit some high standards. Tristan Lamprecht won the Long Jump event with a jump of 4.06m, as well as winning the javelin with a super throw of 31.35m, a great new PB and a grade 1 AAA. Also, in the Javelin Toby Hume was second also with a new PB and a grade 4 AAA standard.
There were also some superb, sizzling performances from the U13 Girls Team. Despite many of the athletes being the older year in the age group, due to no competitions in 2020, there were many first time experiences especially in the hurdles, high jump, 1200m and shot put. The commitment of the seven girls saw every event filled with athletes competing outside their comfort zone. We started the day with Lizzie 3rd in the 70h A race (Grade 4) and Emma winning the B race. This was their first ever competition over the hurdles I believe only making it down the 10 full flights a week before! Fantastic coaching from Lloyd. The sprints saw fast runs from Sophie (4th 75m) and Elizabeth (3rd 75m) Corinna (2nd 75m) Amy (75m) Rachel (4th 150m) & Katie (3rd 150m). The 800m and 1200m were going to be a challenge in the extreme heat. Sophie stepped up to the 800m A race (usually a sprinter and just missed out on a grade 4 performance and a PB by 15-20 seconds). Amy the youngest member of the team (year 6) had a strong run to finish 4th with Corinna running strongly over 1200m to both finish 3rd.
The high jump saw Emma and Rachel brave jumping for the first time over a competition bar. They seemed to thrive on the competition and in great high jumping weather Emma (2nd grade 3) Rachel (2nd grade 4). Both girls just finishing second on count back. Shot put saw Elizabeth and Amy compete in shot for the first time finishing 4th & 3rd respectively. Everyone likes to long jump. So with only two slots available Katie and Emma took their turn to jump. Katie surprised herself to come 2nd with Emma also 2nd. The final event before the relay was javelin. Katie placed 1st with a grade 3 performance with Corinna also taking 3rd place.
The U13 girls relay as usual was highly oversubscribed and on Saturday it was the turn for Elizabeth, Katie, Lizzie and Rachel. I thought we would finish mid race as we had in both of the sprint events, how I was wrong!! The girls had different ideas. With slick change overs (thanks to Minique & Simon for practicing) and superb sprinting the girls came home to take first place and a 58.4 second time. Such a fantastic way to finish the day on a high. The U13 boys ran a great relay race with their fastest time this season and a brilliant 2nd place. This was also backed up by the U15 girls, who had a team in the 4×100 and one in the 4×300. The 4×300 team were third behind strong Altrincham and Stockport teams. The 4 x100 team where second in a thrilling finish. And beat Altrincham into 3rd by 0.1 of a second!
Overall Macclesfield were third on the day in what was a fabulous team effort across all the age groups.
At this stage it is worth a big thank you to all the coaches who have been working with all the age groups. The athletes are definitely benefiting from training in all of the athletics disciplines. Each athlete is confident and prepared to compete. Some of these coaches only started their coaching journey last June as we started up after Covid. They have been committed to the athletes and Macclesfield developing their skills in various disciplines.
The U13 coaching team is Adrian, Anna, Claire, Helen, James, Jim, Kristian, Lloyd, Minique, Neil, Simon, Tim with help from Barbara and the fantastic parent helpers that volunteer each week. Similarly, the U15 coaches in the multi -events space and the dedicated groups have worked hard with all the athletes. Thanks to all the parents and especially Paul and Lloyd for bringing the camping table and dice games to entertain the girls throughout the afternoon. It was a fantastic day for the team.
Simon, Sue, Anna and Anne (U15 and U13 team managers)