Carl Worthington

In 2014, British Athletics launched the Club:Connect initiative, with the objective of recognising and rewarding significant contributions made by clubs in supporting athletes through all levels of their athletics journey.

In recognition of Sale Harriers getting to the Junior YDL final in 2018, Club:Connect invited our junior U13 & U15 athletes to compete in a 4x200m relay competition at the Muller International Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham on Saturday 16th February 2019. Competing against some of the fastest junior athletes in the country, there was a lot of pressure on our young athletes; especially as the winning teams would each receive £250 for their club.

The U13 girls were first up and included Thea Brown, Holly Garner, Lily Edson and Tia Grover. Our first runner was Thea, who despite being given the outside lane stormed round the track and handed over to Holly in second place to Milton Keynes. Holly powered round the first bend and soon overtook the Milton Keynes athlete down the back straight. Despite being three meters in front, Holly was forced to handover to Lily on the outside, which meant Lily and then Tia had to cover a greater distance than any other athlete. Coming round the final bend, there was a three way sprint to the finish line with Sale Harriers eventually being placed a close third.

Next up were the U13 boys who consisted of Joshua Eme, Tolu Adeyemi, Max Cunningham and Tim Zola. Fortunately, the U13 boys were given the inside lane and took full advantage of it. Our first two runners, Joshua and Tolu were in a different league to the other runners and by the time Tolu handed over to Max, Sale Harriers had a 10 meter lead on the other clubs. Despite Max only being 11 years old, he ran with maturity and was able to maintain the lead when handing over to Tim.  Reading and Black Heath were defiant in their running and were right on Tim’s shoulder coming around the last bend. Despite immense pressure, Tim was able to hold off the other athletes and triumphantly came through the line in first place!

Our U15 fast girls were next to race and included Success Eduan, Favour Joseph, Jasmine Richardson and Natachi Nwosu. As expected, Success and Favour were dominant in their running and gained us a massive lead on the other clubs. Despite Black Heath gaining on Jasmine, their hand over was poor; thereby enabling Natachi to take a five meter lead and easily win the race.

Finally, it was the turn of the U15 boys’ team, consisting of Leonardo Scott, Basil Zola, Sammy Breingan and Tom Boyd. Despite a valiant effort from all four lads, Marshall Milton Keynes dominated the race throughout and convincingly won the race.

For the rest of the day, the athletes were able to relax and get inspired watching international athletes break world records.

Congratulations to all athletes who competed.

Muller Indoor Grand Prix

Girls team

Boys team

Relay Squad

Relay Team

Peter Shaw

The final match at University Playing Fields brought to an end another highly successful league season for the club’s young athletes with all six of our youngest teams finishing in the medals. Pride of place goes to the U13 girls who have now won the team title for the 5^th successive year.

Our U13 boys recently defended their Northern title and won the league title as did the U15 girls. Northern champion JACK SPARK extended his unbeaten run in the U13 boy’s age group to five races to secure the individual league title and teamed up with FREDDIE MEREDITH and OSCAR SCHOFIELD to win the team race. We also finished 1^st B and first C teams. Well done to ED LORD, JOSH COLQUHOUN-LYNN, GEORGE NOBLE, MATTHEW GARDNER, JACK BATTEN and FINN DAY.  JASMINE REED had her best run of the season to finish runner-up in the U13 girl’s race and teamed up with SARA CLOUGH and CARMEN SAFRANAUSKAS to win the team race. We also finished 1^st B team due to fine runs by ANNABELLE BYGRAVE, IZZY APPLEBY, ELLIE GILDART and GRETA BROOKS.

Out U11 teams both performed well to finish 2^nd on the day which means the girls will be overall silver medallists whilst the boys will be overall bronze medallists. BEN KEELEY had an incredible run to finish 3^rd in the boy’s race despite having another year in this age group. Our other counters were brothers JAMES & LIAM O’BRIEN who had their best ever runs. We won the B race with fine runs from ALEX FRASER, FRASER SINCLAIR and TOBY HUNTLEY. The U11 girls finished 2^nd A and were 1^st B, C and D teams. Well done to IZZY HALL, LIZ SINCLAIR, IMOGEN HILL, EVA KARALIUS, BETH TITTENSOR, AVA BYGRAVE, MEGAN JOHNSON, STEFFI BERNDT DE LA O and HOLLY NOLAN.

Out U15 teams both finished 3^rd on the day which means the boys will be overall bronze medallists whilst the girls had already won the league having already won the first three matches. Well done to IZZY BURKE, LIBBY HILL, OLIVIA NOLAN, ALEX JAMES, LUKE CHINOY, WILL PARKER, CHARLIE TITTENSOR, ZAC GAILLEMIN and ROBBIE RIGBY.

In the U17 age group ANOUSKA BROOKS, LAURA HOLE and ALEX ARMSTRONG-BOND are to be thanked for turning out to represent the club.

Under 13 Champions

408 Team 2019 Maccl U13g Champions Sara Clough Jasmine Reid. Ava Clough

Report by: Anita Richardson

Sale Harriers had over 20 athletes competing at the North of England under 15 and 13 Championships competition. The team has gone from strength to strength especially the under 15 girl’s age group with entries over 60 in the 60m and 200m. In fact, most events in the U15 girls categories had over 50 entries. 

Championship records were broken by 2 Sale Harrier’s athletes:

• Under 13 girl’s Thea Brown High Jump Gold 1.50 PB who also gained silver in the 60m
• Under 15 200m Success Eduan 200m 24.38 PB Gold

Further medals went to the following Sale athletes:

Hermione Mason:

• 2^nd place under 15 60m hurdles
• 3^rd place Morgan White Pole Vault

Finalists

We also had a large number of finalists who were so close to medalling:

• Leonardo Scott 60 m 5^th place and PB
• Natachi Nwosu 200m under girls 5^th place and PB
• Annabel Amadin 4^th place shot and PB
• Ellise Fryer Francis 6^th place shot and 5^th place LJ

Semi Finalists

Favour Joseph and Jasmine Richardson both PB 60m, Laila Herstell 60m under 13 PB, Tia Grover under 13 200 m PB.

Apologies if any athlete was missed off for their achievements.

Sat 9th MACCL #5 Final League race.