Building off the back of Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s gold medal at the Athletics World Championships in Doha on Thursday night, Liverpool Harriers proved once again this weekend they have a talented club with a bright future ahead.
The Liverpool Harriers are the most established athletics club in Merseyside and after finding worldwide success, the club and KJT have become a hub to inspire the latest aspiring athletes in the area.
The talent was on show this past weekend.
The big event on the weekend was the English Road Relays 2019, which took place in Birmingham on Sunday.
The national Autumn Road Relays are a notable event in the cross country season, with the Harriers fielding ten teams in total, all the way to senior men and women.
They found the most success through the U13’s A team who finished 12th overall. Max Webster took the team off to a good start with a time of 14:41 before James Evans (14:33) brought the team to 13th with Riley Malone (14:51) coming in strong to secure 12th position.
The U13s B team consisting of Bobby Burney (15:16), Tom Bryne (15:20) and Ben Leatherbarrow (15:02) finished 21st out of 48 teams.
The U13 Girls team finished 41st with Rosie Swinnerton (17:09) leading the line and Kylagh O’Shea (18:36) and Beatrix Cole (16:43) following.
Liam McNay (12:47) got the U15 Boys A team off to a great start by finishing 6th but they fell behind on the second and third leg to finish 22nd overall. The B team consisting of Iwan Williams, Ben Roach and Ben Taylor finished 49th.
Two girls teams were fielded in the U15 race with the A team finishing 10th and the B team 45th.
Only a men’s team was fielded in the U17 category. Charlie Teare (13:14), Matthew Brennan (13:15) and Jamie Ford (12:56) secured 28th position.
The Harriers also fielded both a men’s and women’s senior team. The men’s team finished 25th in a six-stage race whereas the women team finished 40th in a four-stage race.
A Sportshall event in Widnes on Sunday showcased the successful youth coming through with the Harriers picking up 3 first place positions in the U11 boys, U13 girls and U13 boys categories with the U11 girls picking up fourth position. The young team were also accompanied by their new mascot Kat; a teddy bear named after Johnson-Thompson.
Sportshall athletics provide a fun environment for children aged between 4-16 to participate nationally in the sport during the winter as well as competing in cross country. Sportshall have involved over 1 million children into the sport and has been a sustainable platform for children to compete since 1984.
Long-distance runner Charlie Hulson picked up 15th position in the Cardiff half marathon with an impressive time of 64:28 minutes. Considering the race featured international competitors, Hulson finishing amongst those is a great achievement.
The winner of the race was Leonard Langat who broke the course record with a time of 59:30. Second-placed Shadrack Kimining took a close second, just three seconds behind his fellow Kenyan.
The annual Merseyside Schools XC took place at Calderstones Park on Saturday as well, with several Liverpool Harriers athletes competing.
Overall, the future is bright for Liverpool Harriers. Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s gold in Doha will inspire the next generation and this weekend was proof of the promising future ahead for the club.
(Pic by Mick Garratt – Used under Creative Media Commons License)
