Two Vale of York girls pulled on the yellow of Humber for the inter-counties match at Kingston upon Hull on Saturday 12 September, up against South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. Humber won the match outright, against counties with far more clubs to pick from.
Everly started the day by winning the long jump and taking maximum points. Lily took second in the shot, winning her own heat and adding almost a metre to her best with the 2kg shot. Everly also ran the 75m and anchored the 4x75m relay, which won and set a county record.
When I was selected to compete for my county I felt happy and proud of myself. It was a big achievement. On the day I felt nervous but knew I would do well! My favourite part of the day was the relay, we worked as a team and won and set a county record! I knew there would be tough competition and so I was proud to win the long jump and pleased to earn points for the Humber team.
Everly
When my mum told me I was picked for the Humber County I didn’t understand how big of an achievement that myself and Everly accomplished until she explained it to me. I couldn’t believe that I was picked for shot put. When I got there and got my T-shirt I felt so much more excited to go up against the other counties. When we started it was very tense because the girls were all picked for how good they were, but with a tough competition I came home with a win in my heat, a PB and added points for Humber.
Lily
It was not all smiles. In the 75m the girl in the next lane almost went over during the set, and Everly expected to be called back. The gun went anyway. She started well behind the field and finished fourth, having gone in as the quickest girl there on paper. Her dad Ash called it a good bad experience, and he is right. Learning to take a bad one on the chin is as much a part of athletics as the medals are. She finished the day anchoring a winning relay.
Heidi Bradley made a point worth repeating. The Humber Open Series has been a fine place for athletes to work on technique and try new events in real competition, and two Vale of York athletes have now gone from that series to representing their county.
The next day, the West Yorkshire League championships
Sunday 13 September at Cleckheaton, less than twenty four hours after Hull. Everly missed a medal in the 75m on the same time as third place, then set a shot PB before winning the long jump convincingly. Lily pushed her shot PB out again for second, and took second in the high jump.
Niamh added a centimetre to her own club record in the long jump, out to 4.77, to take bronze. She did it with her third jump, after the first two had not gone right. Not getting flustered and then delivering is a hard thing to do at any age.
Two medals for the club in the senior women’s shot, Heidi Bradley second and Lisa Whitaker third. Heidi finished her season with a javelin of 20.53m for first place, a new club record, and three centimetres onto a personal best she set thirteen years ago.
The overall league trophies were handed out the same day, and those are a season’s work rather than an afternoon’s. JJ Grice took silver as the second best senior man in the league, and Lily collected the trophy for third place U12 overall. JJ still needs to collect his, from Beverley. Molly, Daisy and Rosie were also competing at Cleckheaton.
All of that on the same weekend as the Great North Run and our own Vale of York Half. Quite the weekend for one club.
