High Peak youngsters make fine start to title defence

The opening meeting of this summer’s league for young athletes aged 9-14 saw High Peak send a team of 10 athletes to compete against other Derbyshire clubs, including Chesterfield and District AC, Amber Valley AC, Derby AC, Buxton and District AC, and Heanor Running Club.

All of the athletes contributed to the team score of 99 points.

That left them in fourth position behind the big clubs, and leading the Small Club Trophy league with Heanor and Buxton in hot pursuit and many more twists and turns to come.

The next meeting of the Derbyshire mini league is on 25th May, when the club are hoping for a good turn out from High Peak athletes in order to consolidate the current league position.

There were several debuts in competitive track and field in the U11 and U13 age categories.

In the U11’s Maisie Paul (14.5 secs, 10.63) and Olivia Barker (15.74 secs 80m, 11.91) competing for the first time in the Derbyshire Mini-League, put in amazing performances in both the 80m sprint, with times of 14.5 and 15.74 seconds respectively, and the Howler javelin competition.

Olivia came second in the howler with a tremendous throw of 11.91 metres, and Maisie fourth with a throw of 10.63 metres.

In the U13 age group there was a track debut from Alana Ryan, who showed great stamina by competing in the 100m (in a time of 16.64), followed by the 800m (3 mins 20 secs) and then the 200m (35.11 secs).

Not satisfied with that she then competed in the girls’ U13 age group relay, helping her team mates of Imogen Wilson, Hannah Duncan and Ella Brookes to get a good position of fourth out of five teams.

This was a very credible performance given they were competing against far more experienced teams.

There were some fine individual performances from the other girls in the U13 age group.

Imogen Wilson shone with a fine 100m in 16.37 secs, a PB in the long jump at 2.66 metres, and 3 minutes 14 seconds in the 800m. Hannah Duncan ran a swift 100m in 15.93 seconds, a delightful 200m in 33.58 seconds, and threw hard to achieve a 4.63m in the shot putt.

For Ella Brookes at her first Derbyshire Mini-League there were very satisfying performances in the 100m (17.13 seconds), the long jump (1.86m) and the shot put (3.62m).

Isabelle Wooley has for a long time been a consistent athlete for High Peak at the Derbyshire mini league, and she again made a wonderful contribution with a triple PB day with new bests in the 100m at 16.67, in the long jump at 3.18m, and in the shot put at 4.55m.

In the U13 boys category the experienced Tom Boam and Dylan Taylor scored heavily for the HPAC team with Tom contributing 25 points and Dylan 17 points, coming first and second place in the shot put and both achieving personal bests at the same time (with throws of 5.23 and 5.21 metres respectively).

They also put in very pleasing performances in the high jump, Tom coming third with a jump of 1.24m and Dylan sixth with 1.18m.

In the 100m Tom set a new PB of 14.72 seconds, with Dylan running very well to a time of 16.22 seconds.

In the U9’s 50m race, Jack Taylor sped to a swift 9.55 seconds, coming second overall.