Indoor season starts well for Mansfield athletes
Four of Mansfield Harriers talented young athletes made the short journey to the English Institute of Sport at Sheffield to compete in the opening fixture of the South Yorkshire Athletics Indoor Series.
The series runs throughout the winter and is great winter preparation in readiness for the 2025 track season.
In her first competition as an Under 13 athlete Katelyn Marshall improved her personal best for the Long Jump as she leaped out to 3.65 metres, and went on to record an impressive time of 32.08 for 200 metres at her first attempt at the distance.
Under 15’s Charlotte Marshall and Edee Gascoyne put down fantastic early season markers in the 60 and 200 metres as they recorded 8.51 and 8.68 respectively over 60 metres and in an exciting run to the line Edee pipped the 200 with 28.73 against 28.74 for Charlotte. The Long Jump saw Edee leap out to 4.12 metres, Charlotte 3.99 metres and Maya Bonser 3.82 metres who unfortunately picked up an injury early in the competition.
The second of this seasons Derby Runner BDL cross country competition was held at Chaddesden Park in Derby on a two lap fairly flat course consisting of two stream crossings on each lap and a distance of close to 4.5 miles. A double header with the North Midlands League the day before meant that resources were stretched however with the assistance of some doing both races the club came away winning all three categories, women, men and combined and with three fixtures to go are first in both women and combined categories and are only one point behind the leaders in the team event for the men.
The women had the same four scorers as the first match and the first three in all competed in two hard races over the two days. Junior Lily Mason was first back in 2nd place followed by Hannah Wragg 4th, Emily Pares 6th, Helen Jones 10th, Natasha Carver 37th, Emma Mason 46th, Holly Colton 50th, Claire Croll 60th and Maddie Collinge 100th.
After a strong run where he placed 3rd the day before Paul Wright returned to action the next day at Chaddesden and put in another sublime performance as he took the win with a comfortable margin of over 30 seconds. Mike Blair continues his recent improvement coming home in 3rd place with Simon Fisher 7th, Reece Carver 11th, Matt Bottomore 16th, Simon Kelley 29th, Geoff Bottomore 45th, Finlay Strawther 66th, Andy Walker 72nd, Dan Ward 81st, Graeme Baguley 119th, Mark Burr 124th and Shaun Arrowsmith 150th.