North of England Junior Track and Field Championships

Barnsley - 26/27 May 2001

Rachael Nathan’s remarkable run of form continued when she became the North of England U-17 women’s 3000m champion at Barnsley’s Dorothy Hyman Stadium. Opposed by the highly rated Courtney Birch from Liverpool Pembroke AC she tracked her rival until past halfway when the former suddenly pulled out of the race. This left Nathan well clear of the rest of the field and quickening the pace impressively over the final two laps she eventually crossed the line a huge distance clear in a new championship best time of 9minutes 41.5 seconds-over twenty seconds faster than the previous best.

There was another great result for Lincoln Wellington in the junior men’s 1500m event. After being in a tricky position with 300m of the second heat remaining Matt Bowser put in a very strong finish to win narrowly in a personal best time of 4.02.77. Tom Doe was close behind in a blanket finish and grabbed 5th place in 4.03.42 to also qualify for the final. This was expected to be won by Malcolm Hassan of Sunderland Harriers and although he led for a long way it was Bowser who made a decisive strike with 200m to go and went clear. Unfortunately he was just unable to repel the very late challenge of another highly ranked athlete in Tom Carter of Vale Royal AC who hit the front right on the line. A finishing time of 3.54.36 – a further reduction of 8 seconds in his personal best – was more than adequate compensation for the Wellington athlete for missing out on the gold medal. Tom Doe was always in the chasing group in a very high class field and eventually finished 5th in 4.01.77.

The other outstanding Wellington performance of the championship was claimed by Rowena Harrison in the U20 women’s 400m with a personal best time of 58.8 seconds in her heat to give her a qualifying standard for the English Schools Championships at Exeter in July. She repeated that time two hours later when finishing a close 5th in the final. Elizabeth Ward also made the final of this event and after a fairly cautious start she finished well to take 8th place.

Jason Hall ran a well paced race in the U17 men’s 3000m and crossed the line in 9.29.94 to take seven seconds off his previous best and Natasha Johnson recorded a seasons best of 5.15.63 in the U15 girls 1500m. New member Stephen Blagdon ran with promise in the U20 men’s sprint events. He made the final of the 100m and finished 8th in 11.47 and the following day he returned to finish 5th in his heat in the 200m in a useful time of 23.63.

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