North East Track and Field Championships 2010

8th-9th May 2010, Gateshead International Stadium

With 19 Chester-le-Street Athletes competing over the weekend, the club collected an impressive 20 medals – 8 Gold, 4 Silver and 8 Bronze, and 1 CBP. By the end of the weekend, Daniel Pickering was the most decorated athlete collecting an outstanding five medals. Joey Williams picked up four medals and Mia Hodgson and Henry Johnson picked up three each. Tracy Laws collected a distance double gold and Emma Raven smashed the Championship Best Performance. Whilst many of the medalist ran PB times, there were also some superb performances and PBs across all the events and ages in conditions that were far from ideal at times, particularly on Saturday. Congratulations to all!

U13: Daniel Pickering and Henry Johnson were spotted pulling Bolt style poses on the podium throughout the weekend with the pair winning 8 medals between them. Their closest race was the 200m with Dan edging out Henry by just 2 hundredths of a second and the boys taking 1st and 2nd with 28:28 and 28:30. They also took gold and silver in the 1500m with Dan running 4:55 and Henry a PB of 5:01. Joe Armstrong and Robert Peverley supported the pair well with Joe finishing 4th taking 7 seconds from his PB in 5:09 and Robert running 5.48.7 finished 8th. The tables were turned in the 800m with Henry first home in second place recording a superb PB of 2.19.88 which was a grade 1 AAA’s standard. Dan was 3rd in 2:27 and Robert joined to pair in the final to finish 8th in 2:50. Dan won a further two medals in the 100m (bronze: 13:68) and long jump (silver: 4.26m) whilst Robert just missed out on a medal in the shot putt throwing 5.60m to take 4th. Our sole female U13, Charlotte Cummings competed well in the long jump finishing 5th with 3:53m.


U15: In the U15 age-group the attention turned to the sprints and jumps with Mia Hodgson and Anna Smith recording several notable performances. Mia won the high jump with 1m 50 which was a grade 2 standard and the 75m hurdles in 11.9secs (grade 1) and collected a bronze in the 100m with 13.0. Anna was 6th in a close 100m final with 13.3 and although finishing 4th, jumped a lifetime best of 4:33m in the long jump which was 5cm further than 5th placed athlete Mia. Chris Peverley collected a bronze in the boys breezy 3000m recording 9:54, just outside of his PB. Chris also battled hard in the 1500m finishing 4th in 4:36 whilst Thomas Goulding ran a 1 second PB finishing 7th in 4:44.6. Both these performances were AAA’s grade 4 standard. Tom also ran 2:21.2 in the 800m heats. Having just stepped up into the age group, Anna Fawcett had to settle with 3rd and 4th places in the 800 and 1500m respectively but secured impressive PB’s in both events. She took 9 seconds from her 1500m time recording 5:00.1 and 2 seconds from her 800 best recording 2:26. Both times were grade 3 standard.

U17/U20: Multi-eventer Joey Williams had a busy and successful championships winning the 100m hurdles in 15.46 and collecting bronze in shot (9.25m) on the Saturday, before picking up another gold and bronze on the Sunday in the long jump (1st in 6.08m and grade 2) and the high jump (3rd with 1.60m). In the distance events, Callum Morgan continued to chip away at his PB’s taking another second off his 1500m time, finishing 10th in 4:23.9 and recording 2:08.6 in the heats of the 800m. Meanwhile Katie Blackett finished a promising 5th in the U17 800m recording 2:38.4. Caitlin Smith ran a creditable 13.51 in the 100m heats to gain her place in the final where she finished with a time of 13:65. Finally, U20 athletes Scott Markwell and Owen McArdle both ran new PB’s in the 200m with Scott recording 24.11 in the heats and Owen 23.48 when finishing 6th in the final. Owen also set a PB in the 400m finishing in 5th place with 53.51.

Seniors: Our senior endurance trio also left their mark on the championships with Tracy Laws winning both the 5000m on the Saturday and the 1500m on the Sunday. Tracy ran two huge PB’s taking 27 secs of her 5km best in an impressive solo run recording 17:17 before running 4:38 in the 1500m; 4 seconds faster than her previous best. Both times were grade 3 standard. Angela Hunter just missed out on a medal in the 1500m but ran a strong and confident race removing 9 seconds from her seasons best set two weeks ago recording 4:51. Finally, Emma Raven set a new PB and a Championship Best Performance in the 2km steeplechase removing 64 seconds from the old best set in 2000. Her 6mins 36 was a grade 1 AAA’s standard.

Sorry to anyone who has been missed: let me know of any errors (emwater[at]hotmail.com)

The AAA’s standards for 2009-2010 are found at:
http://www.aaa-athletics.org/

Championship results:
http://www.gateshead-harriers.co.uk/home/index.php