Young Harriers competing in the Youth Development League

Just under half of the Kilmarnock Harriers club filled the orange vests of the Ayrshire Team in the U13, U15 and U17 age groups for the second meeting of the Youth Development League (formerly Young Athletes League) at our home track in Kilmarnock. To many of the athletes, it felt weird competing here again not long after the West Districts a few weeks ago!

Starting with the U17 men, Ryan Crolla set the team up in the 100m hurdles coming second in a time of 18.62, after have being pulled in just 20 minutes before!  Reed Wyper followed after in the 200m B string, winning it in 25.14 and having to battle a tough headwind even though the wind reading says that it was a 1.5 m/s tailwind. Laura Duncan, Caitlin White and Lorne Kerr represented Ayrshire for the U17 women. Caitlin competed in the 100m winning by inches clocking in at a time of 13.81, again against the strong headwind!

 

Laura ran in the 200m running superbly, also winning and timing 28.16. Lorne ran well after the Friday/Saturday West District meeting running 13.86 in the 100m coming a close second.

It’s not great that almost all the races today had a headwind, but all the athletes ran not far off their PB’s which shows good consistency.

 

Hannah Bartl clearing 2.00m in pole vault

Hannah Bartl competed in pole vault and won with a vault of 1.95m whilst only been training for it for a couple of months.

In the relays, the U17 men came away with a big win after winning their last relay a few weeks ago at Grangemouth. Reed Wyper, John Hamilton of Ayr, Niall McHugh and Lewis McMillan (both from Ayr Seaforth) lined up in that order to take home a win clocking 45.96s. The U17 women ran an amazing race with Katherine Trainer of Ayr, Lorne Kerr, Caitlin White and her teammate at the indoor relays Laura Duncan also took home a win for Ayrshire running a good time of 52.06.

The U15 Boys ran the 4x300m. Ben Lomako (Ayr), Cameron Wilson (Kilmarnock), Callum Meldrum and Fraser Angus of Ayr ran in that order. Right from the start the boys had a lead and managed to keep it even with Cameron running in agony with a back injury! At the 3^rd leg Edinburgh managed to catch up. Callum was pressured a lot but managed to hold off the Edinburgh runner showing great strength! Fraser then took home the baton and another win for the Ayrshire team in a time of 2.43.42.
Moving on to the U15 individual age group Cameron Wilson competed in the boys B string 100m coming 2^nd running a good 12.79 in windy conditions. He also competed in the discuss throw for B string and came 2^nd again, throwing 23.81m. Being a busy athlete, he also threw well in javelin coming 4^th in the A string and threw 29m exactly.

David Stark ran in the 200m B string clocking in at 3^rd and running 29.96. David also competed in the B string long jump and came 2^nd with a jump of 4.19. Another busy athlete, David gained good points for the team by coming 3^rd in the A string high jump and cleared 1.35m which was also joint with 2^nd place but countback placed him in 3^rd.

On to the girls, Caitlin McClounie ran in the B string 100m and came 8^th, coming across the line at 14.70s. Olivia Cochrane competed with Ayrshire in the A string 800m alongside Shona McBean in the B string. Olivia ran 2.37.75 coming across the line in 8^th and Shona finished in 7^th in 2.45.31. Shona also competed in the B string javelin scoring 2^nd place with a throw of 14.62m.  Lauren Park completed the B string 1500m in 6.02.79 in 7^th.

Cara Baillie ran 75m Hurdles in 17.01, 7^th place. Like Hannah, Cara has also been training for pole vault where she won A string with a vault of 2.00m. She also did well in B string high jump clearing 1.40m and winning that string.

Evie Bartl, Kilmarnock’s star athlete some might say, won the A string discuss throw with a PB of 21.68m and also won the A string javelin throw scoring 24.26m. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it a hat-trick where she came 2^nd in A string shot putt throwing 8.58m.

For U13, Erin Connolly ran in the 75m placing 6^th and running 11.36. Hilda Mtawali ran in the B string and also placed 6^th and ran 11.67s.  Lauren Greig competed in 150m for Ayrshire A string and won the race in a time of 20.98 in a horrific headwind of 3.9m/s.  Sophie Rowan ran well in the A string 70mH and finished 4^th in 13.05. Natalie Sharp ran shortly after her in the B string and she too finished 4^th clocking 15.27s. She jumped for Ayrshire in the A string long jump, jumping 3.86 and placing 6^th on the table.  Eildh Gardiner won the B string javelin with a throw of 12.09. Eildh also competed in B string shot putt scoring 4^th with a throw of 4.93m.  Kayleigh Duff came 3^rd in the A string shot putt for U13 girls throwing 5.72m. Wrapping up with the relays, the U15 girls came 3^rd with their lineup of Kirsten McClymont, Caitlin McClounie, Nadia Simpson and Louise Murray. The girls came across the line clocking a time of 53.54.

Erin Connolly, Hilda Mtawali, Lauren Greig and Jaime Hood  ran for the U13 girls where they placed 4^th in a time of 57.16.

For the boys U13 team, Robbie Swift, Aidan Hesset, David Stark and Brendan Lynch did brilliant coming 2^nd in a time of 55.97s.

Overall, for that meeting Ayrshire placed 2^nd behind Edinburgh with a total point score of 529 whilst being a mere 6 points ahead of Giffnock North.

article courtesy of Reed Wyper, pictures Colin Young