Having aleady acheved their season target of qualifying for the North Wesy Sportshall Finals, our smal team of 6 boys yesterday raised their game to new heights to press the much larger and more experienced teams from West Cheshire, Stafford, St Helens Stockport, Liverpool, Bury and Trafford all the to finish a quite remarkable 4th - the smallest of margins behind 2nd !!!!
With 4 of these boys (Alex Ranshaw, James Carey, Stuart Price and James Turner) first yaer Under 13 and the other 2 (Mike Cuming and Mark Bellerby) newto the discipline this year, they needed to achieve personal bests in virtually every event to avoid finishing at the bottom of the pile. This they did in great style. Alex Ranshaw got things off to a great start with gold in the 2 lap race with Ames Carey a fighting 4th. Stuart Price (coming straight from the sped bounce) ran in a close 4th in the 4 lap race, then had a 10 minute break before finishing a strong (but exhausted) 6th in the 6 lap. Mike Cuming, showing the benefit of his Cross country efforts, stormed home in 3rd.
With James Carey (with PB-s in the Shot and Long Jump), Alex Ranshaw (with PB-s inthe Long Jump and Trple Jump), James Turner (with a PB in the Triple Jump), MArk Bellerby (with PB-s in the Shot and Speed Bounce) and both Mike and Stuart recoring PB-s in the Vertical Jump, it looked as though the boys mat have done enough to reach the top 3.
However, despite a fantastic effort in the 2 lap relay,where they finished 2nd behind a dominant West Cheshire side, they were pipped at the post by Stafford and St Helens.
Despite this, every one of them should be proud of their performances. With so many personal bests, their true competetiveness shone through and carried them to a result we would not have believed possible at the start of the season.
Congratulations to this fine group of athletes.