Team Isle of Man’s track and field athletes enjoyed an excellent weekend off-island, with both the senior and junior teams enjoying great success in the north west.
The senior team won round two of the Northern League by an enormous margin at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday.
Then on Sunday the Youth Development League (YDL) team finished second in their round three match at Robin Park in Wigan just behind a very strong Sale Harriers team.
Numerous personal bests were set over the weekend, some by big margins, and more valuable experience was gained of representative competition. In addition, there were some new Isle of Man records set.
The senior team (from the under-17 age group upwards) are a class apart from the other five teams in their division and are set to be promoted back to the Western Premier Division next season which will provide a higher level of competition.
There were many highlights and the day finished on a suitably successful note with a new Isle of Man u20 men’s record being set in the 4x400 metres relay.
The quartet of Ben Sinclair, Ryan Corrin, Regan Corrin and Sam Perry had targeted the record which had stood since 2008, and all four ran superbly to finish in a time of three minutes 31.4 seconds, removing 2.4s from the 16-year-old record.
Perry had already starred in the most exciting race of the day, producing a superbly-judged sprint finish in the 800 metres to catch and pass a very good opponent right at the line.
His time of 1:54.0 was a big personal best and ranks him highly on what is already a very strong all-time list of fastest Manx 800 metres times.
Corrin Leeming produced a wonderful display of powerful front running in the 5,000 metres, lapping with almost metronomic consistency to set a brilliant time of 14:43.3.
Aimee Christian set a substantial personal best in the 400 metres hurdles in the previous match, and she improved it further this time with 66.4 seconds.
Regan Corrin was not able to match his record long jump distance set the previous week, but his 6.67 metres effort was still a fine performance which was exciting to watch. He later set a new best of 12.61 metres in the triple jump.
There are some very promising young multi-event athletes coming through and Lucy Cartwright was especially impressive.
After setting a narrow pb in the 1,500 metres, she then produced a fantastic throw of 29.15 metres in the javelin which puts her in contention for a potential Island Games place next year.
Fine performances from the Schreuder sisters Ashleigh and Jessica contributed to the team success, and experienced all-rounder Daniel Stewart Clague had another excellent day.
Having competed in these matches for around 20 years, he must have scored more Northern League points than any other Manx athlete.
The ever-reliable Laura Dickinson set her first sub-11 minutes time in the 3,000 metres with 10:58.6, and another to beat a time barrier was Neve Madden in the 800 metres, going below 2:30 for the first time with 2:29.2.
On Sunday the action moved to Wigan with the under-13 and under-15 age groups contesting the YDL match. The standard was high, with all six teams boasting both quality and quantity.
Record-breaking performances were the order of the day here too, with Eve Martin getting the ball rolling in the very first track event.
Her time of 12.0 seconds for the u13 girls 70 metres hurdles shaved 0.1 sec off the previous age group record set in 2014 by Abby Foden-Williams. Eve has only just moved into the u13 age group.
Seamus Hall produced one of the runs of the day in the u13 boys 1,200 metres. He was up against the athlete currently ranked number two in the UK for the distance and pushed him all the way.
Seamus’ time of 3:42.1 slots him into seventh place in the rankings and is also a new Isle of Man age group record.
A highly impressive recent newcomer to athletics is Finlay Taggart, whose 1.76 metres in the high jump was a fantastic effort for an u15. Deena Barker’s 26.30 metres in the javelin was also a great performance.
The u13 boys 4x100 metres relay team had beaten the previous Isle of Man record by a substantial margin in the last round with a time of 55.2 seconds, and the same quartet of Seamus Hall, Pierre Goosen, Cameron Eyres and Taylor Kneen exactly matched it again.
Taylor’s uncle Jack Saxon was a member of the previous record-holding team from 2000, as was current senior team member Daniel Stewart-Clague.
Many of the YDL team have been debutants in the league this season and some are undoubtedly stars of the future.
Many thanks go to team managers Petra Atchison and Julie Stanfield (who was presented with a 40th birthday cake by the team) for all their hard work, along with all the officials who travelled away with the teams.
DAVID GRIFFITHS
