Bank holidays are for athletics. At least that’s what our young girls seem to think as well as one solitary boy. 17 Altrincham athletes made it to Longford Park for some May Day madness.

Some of the athletes were experimenting. Aisling McHale took the brave plunge in racing over the hurdles for the first time. Sara Herceg-Millington made her long jump debut, Eva Bucknall did her first 800m and Eleanor Nicholson her first 600m. We like to encourage athletes to try different events, so it’s very pleasing to see athletes that have been successful at cross country having a go at events like the 75m, long jump and javelin.

None of the athletes were debutants. While we are always looking to get new athletes involved, it is very pleasing when we see athletes returning to events, especially given the high level of competition in these Trafford Open Meetings.

We encourage athletes to focus more on time than position. The best example of this would be Thea Prattley in the 600m. Despite just finishing at the back in her race, she improved her PB to less than 2:12, an extremely impressive time for a 9 year old. Hers was a particularly loaded race; had she repeated her time in the other U11 girls race she would have finished in the middle of the pack.

We had one medallist, but two medals! Jade Buckley-Ratcliff added a shot gold and javelin bronze to her already huge collection.

So a big thank you to all the athletes and those who brought them.

U11s: Carys Bucknall, Cerys Smith, Charlotte Stansfield, Eleanor Nicholson, Holly Newton, Jessica Forrest, Sara Herceg-Millington, Thea Prattley
U13s: Aisling McHale, Ellie Newton, Esme Pearson, Eva Bucknall, Grace Adams, Jade Buckley-Ratcliff, Oskar Richardson
U15s: Millie Pearce, Tess Pearce

There were plenty of PBs set. Hopefully this will be followed up with a good turn out in the Cheshire League on Sunday at Ashton-under-Lyne.

Andrew
Results will appear in due course on the Trafford AC website and Power of 10.

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