ALLERTON athletes celebrated the official end of the winter season in style with a total of 14 athletes representing North Yorkshire over the weekend.

Firstly, Saturday was the turn of the year five and six primary and year seven secondary pupils to run in the National Primary Schools Cross Country Championships in Leicester. Running for North Yorkshire in the year five boys race was Jake Holmes, who came a superb sixth, and in the year five girls race, Connie Wilford came a brilliant 19th, Georgia Raw 48th and Isabelle Smith 54th.

In the year six race, James Throup came 34th and Wilf Lamb 77th, and for the year sevens, Maisie Davies was 90th. Running for Allerton Juniors in the same race, Martha Shakeseff came 50th.

Head coach Glen Hilton said: "These juniors, ranging in age from nine to 12 years, have worked really hard all season and fully deserve their fantastic results. These were large races, with 150 of the country’s best young athletes in each race, and are not for the faint hearted."

Also on Saturday, the Regional Sportshall Athletics Finals were held in Manchester. Qualifying to run for North Yorkshire were Allerton athletes Henry Kirkbride, David-Patrick Cardle, Eliash Willis, Aaron Kurian, India Clay, Olivia Throup and Evie Smith. All athletes competed well against tough competition and achieved some great results. Most notably, India Clay (U11) came first in the standing long jump, Olivia Throup (U11) 14th in the standing triple jump, Henry Kirkbride (U13) came fourth in both the six-lap race and long jump, Aaron Kurrian (U13) came fourth in the two-lap race, David Patrick Cardie (U13) fifth in the shot, Eliash Willis (U13) eighth in the speed bounce and Evie Smith (U15) fifth in speed bounce.

Finally, marking the end of the North Yorkshire and South Durham (NYSD) Cross Country League for 2022, Allerton Juniors again brought back medals in the NYSD Road Relays held in South Park, Darlington on Sunday. Both the U13 boys team (Joshua Kitching, William Horlock and Cameron Henderson) and U13 girls team (Enna Carrick, Lucy Boot and Mhairi Corcoran) came second for well-earned silver medals, and the U15 boys team (Tristan Baker, Angus Corcoran and Caleb Stanley) bagged a bronze. And last but not least, special mention must go to Abigail Ferguson who was the first girl (and third overall) in the U11 mile race with an amazing time of 6.25 minutes, and to Alyssa Morris who ran a 7.20 minute mile.

Glen said: "This weekend has rounded off the most successful season in the club’s history in all age groups. I would like to thank all my coaches Penny Outhwaite, Andrew Throup, Julia Oosthuizen, Amy Clarkson and James Raw who’ve given up their time and supported our athletes this winter, our parents who have braved the winter weather and travelled the length of the county and country, and of course our sponsors Hutsons. We now look forward to moving to the track season with some big track races in May, June and July, the Junior Great Run Series and Parkruns over the summer."