Lily is a golden girl as PRSA athletes shine

The North of England senior and under 20 and under 17 indoor championships, held at Sheffield’s EIS Facility, was the first competition of the season for many.

The success story of the day was under 20 Lily Hughes (Nene Valley Harriers) who overcame pre-race nerves excellently to take the gold medal after a hard afternoon’s racing.

A 7.85sec opening heat was enough to see Lily qualify comfortably for the semi-final, where she improved her time to 7.78sec.

In only her second-ever indoor competition, Lily took the pressure of a regional final in her stride and claimed a fantastic personal best time of 7.75 secs to move her to equal ninth on the under 20 women’s British Rankings for 2016.

In the same age group, Amy Baxter ran a strong heat to claim an excellent personal best time of 8.11 secs, before coming third in her semi-final, enough to qualify for the final.

In the under 17 age group, Jasmine Allen (Nene Valley Harriers) ran a fantastic personal best time of 8.37.

There was also success over the 60m hurdles, with Zoe Lucas claiming a bronze medal in the under 20 age group.

Her 8.93sec in the final was enough for third place and secures eighth spot in the current UK under 20 rankings.

Amy Baxter continued her personal best form, running a strong 9.48 seconds to take her in to the UK Top 30 for the first time this year.

Competing for the first time in the under 20 age group.

Beth Denial also found her form over the barriers with a personal best time of 10.24.

There was also medal success in the throws.

Nene Valley Harrier Becki Hall competed in the senior women’s shot and claimed a strongly fought bronze medal.

Her throw of 12.32 saw her retain her position in the UK top 10 for 2016.

In the jumps, Beth Denial claimed an excellent fifth place against strong competition in the long jump, with a best performance of 4.95m.

In a very close event, which saw just 30cm between second and eighth, Jasmine Allen rounded off her successful day with a season’s best of 4.99m.

On muddier terrain, the younger members of the squad recently competed in the Lincolnshire Clubs Cross Country championships.

The best placing of the day came from under 13 Calypso Priestly, who navigated the difficult course well to place an excellent ninth.

In the older age groups, under 15 Ffion Lewis came 13th, with Hermione Wright running well to secure 10th place on the Biscathorpe course.

The boys also ran well, with under 15 Codi Leigh Middleton placing an excellent 11th, just in front of William Wright in 13th.

On the longer course, under 17 Nathan Davy put a hard winter of endurance training in to good use, placing an excellent 15th.

Training is held every Tuesday and Thursday night at the Princess Royal Sports Arena, Boston, from 7pm-9pm, and is open to all athletes.