The club organised a highly successful Sale Festival meeting for young athletes on June 12^th despite continuous rain. Over one hundred Harriers took part with 50 medallists awarded 24 gold, 23 silver and 23 bronze medals. The most successful club athlete was Adam Kinghorn who won three U13 events, the 200m, 800m and shot.

The Worthington family gained five gold medals with Charlotte winning U15 100m and 200m whilst Sam won the U19 50m and 600m. His 600m time of 2:14.8 was particularly impressive as he just held off Toby Barrington and Charlie Watson. Charlie turned the tables in the 75m sprint which he won with Sam Worthington in second place. Ben Worthington won the U11 turbo javelin to complete the family treasure trove.

Sale collected two more medals in the turbo javelin with wins from Eve Woods (U11) and Jacob Corrie (U9). All rounder Rory Canham concentrated on the field events and had wins in the U13 long jump and discus.  Joshua Booth was another double gold medallist winning both shot and discus. The long jump was the club's most successful event with Finlay Murphy, Lauren Smith, Brogan Rudman, and Nathan Booth all winning gold.

Harry Lord was an impressive winner of the U15 200m and gained silver medals in the shot and discus. All round thrower Annabel Dowd followed up her PB javelin throw at the county schools on Saturday with a win in the discus and a silver medal in the shot. Impressive sprint victories were gained by Hattie Barrington (U11 100m) and Poppy Glasby-Seddon (U9 50m). Catherine Podmore and Julia Hassall had both recorded PB's over 800m at the County Schools on Saturday and on Sunday turned their attention to 200m where they finished 2^nd and 3^rd and to the discus where they showed a degree of dexterity!

In the absence of Catherine and Julia, Caitlin Thomas was a clear winner of the U15 800m race. Flora Whyte would have pushed Caitlin but decided to rest on her laurels after running a PB 1500m of 5:12.0 in the county schools. Another gold medallist over 800m was Leo Swarbrick who ran a finely judged race in the U11 event.

The best race of the day came in the U13 girls 800m which featured all three medallists from the county cross-country championships. County silver medallist Danielle Stringer of Manchester Harriers took the race out fast as was expected, but was overtaken in the final stages by sprint specialist Chayce Smith of Altrincham AC.  County champion Ellie Twite and bronze medallist Olivia Green ran exceptionally well for 3^rd and 4^th place.  Alice Bruce had won over this distance in last week's YAL match but to-day had to settle for 5^th whilst Franchesca Brint who has shown incredible endurance in winning over 3000m in the Manchester Parks race was reminded of the need for continued speed training if she's to be competitive in this shorter distance.

The best performance of the day came when Lizzie Twite ran 2:52,3 for 2^nd place in the U11 800m. This time plus her recent 600m time of 1:55.8 are amongst the fastest time ever recorded by an 8-year old Sale Harrier.  In her 800m, she sprinted away at the start and opened up a big lead only to be caught on the line by Rochdale Harrier Niamh Nugent who ran a finely judged race.

A special thanks to all our officials who stood out in the pouring rain for up to four hours. What would we do without them!

  (Written by Peter Shaw)

Sale Festival Results