English Schools Track & Field Championships

Two athletes from Holmfirth Harriers travelled to Birmingham to compete in the eightieth English Schools Track & Field Championships held at Alexandria Stadium. Sprinter Jordan Toth and Distance runner Max Kaye had both made it through the qualifying rounds of the County Schools championships. In addition they had to achieve tough qualifying standards in their events before being selected to represent West Yorkshire County Schools.

Jordan Toth was first in action in the Senior Boy’s 100m heats. In Heat 1 Jordan was given 4th place in a photo finish, but with an identical time to the 2nd and 3rd placed athletes of 11.3secs. 5 hours later he was in action again in the semi finals. He blasted out of the blocks but older and stronger athletes had the edge on the day with Jordan finishing 6th in a time of 11.13secs. The final was won by Jordan Arthur of Middlesex in a time of 10.89secs.

Jordan was also selected for the West Yorkshire 4X100m relay heats, the last track event of the day. The four athletes were determined to make it through to the final held on the following day and Jordan’s expertise in the use of blocks made him an obvious choice for leg 1. The baton was brought home in 43.76secs as West Yorkshire finished second in heat 2, the third fastest qualifiers of the day. It was all to do again in the final which marked the highlight of the 2010 championships. Once again Jordan was fast out of the blocks on leg 1and handovers were slick at each change over as West Yorkshire secured the silver medal in 42.71secs.

Max Kaye was in the second heat of the Intermediate boys 1500m. Max set out to track the leaders but the pace was too fast to sustain and he finished in 6th position with a time of 4mins 07.28secs, just outside his personal best. The winner of the heat crossed the line in a blistering 3mins 57.73secs and all qualifiers for the final ran sub 4mins 05secs. The final on Saturday was won by Charlie Grice of Sussex in 3mins 52.25secs.

Both boys have done extremely well this season and have taken huge chunks off their personal best times. It is a huge achievement in itself to compete in the English Schools Championships and this level of performance cannot be achieved without individual dedication and hard work and support from coaches and parents.