LATE September saw a welcome return to track events for the Allerton Juniors Athletics Club (AJAC) sprint squad after a long competitive hiatus over the past year.

North of Tyne Athletic Network (NOTAN) held a North East Run Jump Throw series meeting at Hexham on Saturday, September 19. There were encouraging debuts in the U11 age group from Peggy Attwood, Annie Reed and David Pattrick-Cardie for the club. All athletes acquitted themselves extremely well and look to have a bright future within Track and Field.

In the 75m sprint Eliash Willis ran 12.0s, David Pattrick-Cardie finished with a time of 12.1s, Annie Reed 12.7s and Peggy Attwood with 13.0s. An exceptional throw of 30.58m in the Howler discipline meant that Eliash Willis took overall second place in the competition with David Pattrick-Cardie achieving 24.7m, Peggy Attwood 14.72m and Annie Reed 9.57m.

Next the Standing Long Jump results meant that Eliash Willis and David Pattrick-Cardie shared identical distances of 1.88m and not to be outdone, Peggy Attwood and Annie Reed also both jumped the same distance with a highly credible 1.68m. Lastly, in the longer distance races of 600m David Pattrick-Cardie achieved 02:20.6, Peggy Attwood 02:26.5 and Annie Reed 02:33.5. Definitive benchmarks for all of the young squad to build upon for the rest of the season.

Saturday, September 26 saw Darlington Harriers host another meeting in their Back to Track series. The sprint group gained valuable track experience for the end of season in windy conditions after a long break with Kitty Illingsworth finishing in 14.9s in the U13 Girls category. Erin Corcoran and Evie Smith both ran 14.1m in the U15 Girls races. Henry Kirkbride had the third fastest time overall in the 800m U13 Boys of 2:41.4.