Dave Greenwood
After a week of poor weather affecting the test match at Old Trafford and home fixtures this year, plus the England International all experiencing torrential rain, it stayed dry! The North West Premiership had shown its strength in gaining the top three spots in the Northern Final in July. West Cheshire has some very good athletes who could compete well nationally but they missed out. Big clubs Gateshead and Leeds were not a match for the North West.
The last YDL Final at Bedford resulted in a very close match with Sale in fourth only twenty points behind the winners, Reading. A strong Southampton team of 2017 got relegated last year; such is the strength of this age group across the regions. Blackheath and Bromley, having produced stars like Dina Asher Smith are clearly the best London club for school aged athletes and were looking to contend once more.
The announcements regarding team standings over the day revealed how close it was, the lead changing and often the top two were separated by only a point. The declaration that a relay event which Sale won was to be declared void because athletes were placed in a wrong lane at a changeover could have altered the destiny. The totting up and checking of scores seemed to take an eternity. The positions of the seven teams were revealed in reverse order built the tension so when it was announced Blackheath were second the Sale athletes erupted into joyous celebration which rivalled any top class sport. Congratulations to all Sale athletes, their coaches and parents. That important triad of co-operation is essential to success. Nobody can imagine unless they've been involved, what team managers go through. Carl Worthington and Sinead Ferguson have worked really hard all year to bring about this result, Congratulations.
In our area we have some very good athletics clubs, all within a close area; Sale, Trafford, Salford, Stockport, have all produced quality athletes who have won National titles. Even the smaller clubs such as ECH (Georgia-T-B) and Leigh produce diamonds but not quite as many.
Replacing the sad loss of the City Games will be the National Championships, English Schools and other events all coming to Manchester in the next two years as Birmingham is re developed.
Whilst this event was going on 30,000 were watching Women’s Football (City v Utd) in the Etihad.
Manchester - capital of the North for Sport and culture! Be Proud.
And girl’s team manager Sinead Roche wrote;
I am so so tired but so so proud. This season I have been the boy’s team manager for the YDL (youth development league) for my club Sale Harriers. It's a series of track meetings and takes a lot of work and organisation... Well, we won all our matches in the North West league, so today; we were competing in the NATIONAL finals, against the winners of the other leagues in the UK, so a big deal really!! To be the best club in the country for this age... Today was just brilliant... the children were just unbelievable... and we only went and won so we are NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!! When it was announced, there was a tear in my eye and it was pandemonium... the kids were so excited, screaming, shouting, throwing each other in the air.... there's something about sport which just brings this pure joy that you can't get from anything else... Kids nowadays sometimes get a raw deal, but today, seeing so many children, so talented and dedicated, working so hard and then their delight on achieving their goals... not sure anything beats that!!
Peter Shaw said:
Sale Harriers U13 and U15 boys and girls are the 2019 National YDL Champions, a title they’ve now won three times in the last five years. This is the Golden era for the club’s young athletes. The cauldron for a very tense final was on home turf of Sportcity. We went as eleven times Northern champions to compete against Britain’s top clubs. The final was as exciting a day of athletics that anyone could hope for with Sale scoring 601 points to win by just six. We set four YDL records, three club records and won 70 medals including 28 gold.
Our inspirational captains led from the front with both setting new YDL records. Girl’s captain SUCCESS EDUAN won both sprints in new YDL record times and won the award for the best performance of the day. She also teamed up with NATACHI NWOSU, FAVOUR JOSEPH and JASMINE RICHARDSON to win the sprint relay. Jasmine is to be congratulated on setting a club record in the hammer whilst Favour not only won the 300m but collected a 3rd gold medal when she teamed up with HERMIONE MASON, IZZY BURKE and OLIVIA BROWN to win the 4 x 300m relay.
Boys captain BASIL ZOLA high jumped a massive PB of 1.93m to set a new club and YDL record. Basil was a real action hero as he also won the long jump and competed in four events. THEA BROWN also competed in four events and cleared 1.61m in the U13 girl’s high jump to also set a new YDL record broke club records for both the U13 and U15 age-groups. ...a super girl who can really fly!
EVAN SAVAGE was a clear winner in the 1500m and won the Frank Starkie Memorial Trophy (Frank was a Sale Harrier chairman who made a massive contribution to youth athletic development before his sudden death in 2006).
A special mention to primary age athletes EVA KARALIUS and LILY OLDALE who both won bronze medals . Our other medallists were
GOLD: ELLIOT SAVAGE, WILL STANWAY, JAMES KNOCKTON, MABEL ADJEI, MATTHEW GARDNER, SETIRA REID, HOLLY GARNER and SARA CLOUGH.
SILVER: ELLISE FRYER-FRANCIS (3 medals), TIA GROVER (2 medals), RUARI Mc DONALD, MACKENA BRADSHAW, TOM BOYD, NATACHI NWOSU, BECCA MCLYNN, MABEL ADGEI, ANNABEL AMADIN, JASMINE RICHARDSON, HERMIONE MASON, PRINCE MENDEZ, FREDDIE MEREDITH, HOLLY GARDNER, SETIRA REID, THEA BROWN, AVA CLOUGH and LILY EDSON.
BRONZE: LILY OLDALE (2 medals0, DECLAN O’LOUGHLIN, ELLIOT SAVAGE, EVAN SAVAGE, WILL PARKER, SAMMY BREINGAN, HERMIONE MASON, GEORGIA WALL, SHONA WILKINSON, ANNABEL AMADIN, MABEL ADJEY. ELLA GILLESPIE, IZZY BURKE, OSCAR SCHOFIELD, PRINCE MENDEZ, TOLU ADEYEMI, TIM ZOLA, THEA MAY, EVA KARALIUS and NANCY PICKLES.
It is impossible to acknowledge everyone but every boy and girl can be proud of what they achieved and the honour they’ve brought the club. Many thanks to club officials who scored a maximum of 56 points which contributed to our team victory. It would, of course, all be impossible without team managers CARL WORTHINGTON and SINEAD FERGUSON.
Gallery photos kindly supplied by Carl Worthington
See also Photos from Dave Greenwood at Darkstar Photos
