High Peak AC athletes star in regional Under 16 inter-counties championship

Based on performances over the summer track and field season, seven High Peak AC athletes were selected to represent Derbyshire at the recent Regional U16 inter counties champs held at the Costello Stadium in Hull on Sat September 12th.

And they didn't let the county down with remarkable performances from each across a range of track and field events.

For the under 16 boys High Peak AC throwing stars Aaron Partington and Milo Penn represented Derbyshire in the discus and shot put competitions, with Aaron winning discus and second in short put and Milo coming 2nd in discus and 4th in shot put.

The thrower boys also turned out in the 100m relay race, in which they produced a fine run against more seasoned relay runners. Charlie Wardle, who has represented Derbyshire countless times, was their third under 16 boy in the Derbyshire team, performing strongly in the 100m, 300m and 300m mixed relay.

He scored points for the county across all three events. Unfortunately, High Peak AC's Archie Cottrill was not able to compete due to illness, which was sad as he was one of the favourites for the long jump.

Lily Heywood was High peak ACs only U14 representative. Lily has also appeared previously for Derbyshire. This time she was selected for the 1500m race, and against very strong opposition she came in 7th in 5 minutes 27 seconds.

In the U14 boys, Owen Rawlinson of HPAC was a star by running in both the 1500m and the 100m, showing his distance versatility, and capping it off with an appearance in the 4 x 100m relay team.

Finally making up the High Peak 6 was Frankie Osborne in the U12 category. Making his debut for the county he was in second place in the 75m hurdles but hit the second last hurdle and fell.

It was dramatic but he showed great resolve to finish the race and score team points, and then great sportsmanship to shake hands with all his fellow competitors.

He dusted himself off and went straight into long jump action coming a very creditable 3rd in that event. He also completed the day competing for Derbyshire in the 4 x 75m relay race.

Overall, the results showed Derbyshire coming 4th out of the 5 counties (vs Humber, the home team who won), South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire.

However, the result was somewhat uncertain due to scoring issues on the day, so its possible Derbyshire scored more points than they were accredited and finished higher