Poland championships date awaits talented trio

Jun 26 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

CHRIS SMITH (Wirral), Matthew Owens (Liverpool) and David Forrester (St Helens-Sutton) have been selected to compete for Great Britain in the World Junior Championships in Poland.

Owens (high jump) and Forrester (1,500m) won the trial events at Bedford and, having obtained the qualifying standard earlier in the season, were certain of selection but Smith had an anxious wait having finished third behind James Shane who has been selected for the 1,500m alongside Forrester for the event in Bydgoszcz, Poland, from July 8 to 13.

Earlier this year Smith and Forrester were selected as the first males to attend the “On Camp With Kelly” programme spending time with the double Olympic champion, Kelly Holmes and learning about the experience of competing at the highest level.

At the other end of the age scale the SouthportWaterloo veterans won a trio of medals in the British Masters’ 5k at Horwich. Steve James set a course record 20.43 to take the over-70 category, Sue Cooper won silver in 19.43 and took Karen Falloon bronze with 22.00.

In the Young Athletes League the strong winds caused the cancellation of some throwing events in the big premier league clash at Wavertree which was won by Liverpool with Wirral edging past Liverpool PembrokeSefton for second and bottom of the table York finishing fourth.

LPS’s Chris Hatton, Sean Dignam, Dave Forrester and Mike Bride deominated the under-17s middle distance with Wirral’s under-15s responding in kind through Max Jeffers, Sam Robinson, Liam Fryer and Nick Jones while Liverpool’s Sophie Bell-Morgan produced a high jump and hurdles double.

West Cheshire are in deep relegation trouble after finishing fourth at Sheffield despite wins from Michael Lyness in shot and discus and Leane Rigby over the 75m and 150m sprints. After a bright start to the season SouthportWaterloo were fourth at Wakefield but appear safe from relegation, Sally Wareing setting a club record 19.4 for the 150m and winning the 75m and 800m too.

At nearby Rotherham Kathryn Sumner reached the ESAA standard in the hammer and Lucy Croft set a club record in the discus as St Helens-Sutton finished fourth behind the host club, league leaders Bolton and Welsh champions, Wrexham. The high jump was abandoned when the bed blew away and hospitalised an official.

Paul Sankey (Liverpool Running Club) finished third in the Penny Lane10k followed by the Wirral pairing of Xavier Desse and Steve Spence, Greg Callagan (LPS) who was sixth and Kevin Buxton (Wirral) ninth.

This weekend’s big clash is the National Junior League fixture hosted by LPS at Wavertree involving the Ormskirk-based club, Wirral, St Helens-Sutton, Cheshire Tigers, North Wales and Southport Waterloo while Merseyside host the Regional Round of the Schools’ Pentathlon Championships at Bebington.

The Merseyside Schools’ Cross Country Leagues for both Boys and Girls have decided to discontinue their winter programme of events, owing to falling numbers and lack of staff involvement.