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North of England AA Junior Championships 2000
Part I


Report by:Bryan Murray

27th May 2000 - Princess Mary Stadium, Cleckheaton



Wakefield Harriers had a good haul of medals at the North of England "Great North" junior part 1 championships at Cleckheaton - although several endured bad luck.

In the U20 men's high jump final, James Wild was unluckly to miss out on a bronze medal. Wild cleared the same height of 1.95m as David Etheridge (Sale Harriers), but on count back was placed 4th

Steve Faulkner also endured agony, just failing to reach the final of the U17 men's 800m. Faulkner, in the first out of four heats, produced a time of 2:03.82 to finish just outside the four fastest qualifiers for the final.

John Uridge was also pipped out Qf the medals, finishing 4th in the U17 triple jump final. Uridge's best jump of the competition was 12.49m, with the winning jump produced by Liverpool Harrier Kevin Thompson (13.98m).

Harriers had two finalists in the junior women's 800m event - Helen Singleton and Becky Fender. The first lap was quite an easy pace, but about 250m from home, Hallamshire's Rebecca Lyne took charge and proceeded to win convincingly. Both Singleton and Fender fought well, finishing in fifth and seventh respectively, in times of 2:25.19 and 2:28.81.

The junior women's long jump final produced a close contest from start to finish, despite a fluctuating wind - with Wakefield's Fiona Westwood claiming gold ahead of Fiona Harrison (Barnsley AC). Westwood's best jump of 5.76m was actually into a headwind of over 2.2m/s. Harrison had a slight wind advantage to jump 5.75m, but Westwood held on to win.

Katy Richardson produced a best effort of 5.36m, despite having to negotiate a minus 3.1 metres per second headwind.

In the junior women's shot putt final, Emma Morris's best effort of 10.77m gave her 4th spot, with Laura Curtis (City of Hull) taking bronze with 10.86m. Morris also competed in the discus final, a close contest seeing her finish 9th with a best throw of 29.76m.

In the junior women's hammer final, another tight affair saw Helen Taylor take gold ahead of Shirley Webb (North Shields Poly) with a throw of 44.47m.

Harriers also scooped a medal in the junior women's javelin final, with Michelle Lonsdale vying for top spot with Bingley's Catherine O'Halloran. It was O'Halloran who came up trumps, with her throw of 39.89m beating Lonsdale's best attempt of 37.75m, with the Harrier settling for silver.

Aine Hoban gave a gutsy performance in the ladies U17 3000m final recording a time of 11:19.58 over the seven-and-a-half laps to finish 7th .

U17 athlete Emily Mason overcame difficult conditions to finish 5th in the high jump final with a jump of 1.55m. In the 80m hurdles, Mason finished 4th in a time of 12.70 secs - to just miss out on the final.