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The traditional start to Cumbria’s Track and Field season resulted in a 17-medal haul for young athletes from Kendal Amateur Athletics Club on Sunday. More than 200 competitors from clubs across Cumbria, together with visitors from as far apart as Annan, Durham, Lancaster and Stewartry, converged on the Sheepmount Stadium in Carlisle for the annual Border Harriers & Athletics Club Spring Open Meeting.

Kendal’s strong team of girls brought home 12 medals between them, smashing many of their personal best times in the process. In the under-11s, Fallan Carr won the cricket ball throw, while Stephanie Driscoll took gold in all three of her events - the 80m, 600m and long jump. In the under-13s, Amy Wood won the 100m and high jump and placed second in the shot; Seren Parkman won the 200m, took silver in the long jump and bronze in the 100m while Samantha Bland placed second in the 800m. In the under-15s, Katie Woof took silver in the long jump.

Although outnumbered, Kendal’s boys were not to be outdone. Ben Cudby took silver in the U11 600m, while Cole Blaikie and Ben Grainger took gold and silver in the U13 1500m race. Cole later added a bronze medal in the U13 long jump and his elder brother Callum won the Senior high jump with a height that puts him in the top 10 in the UK Athletics U20 rankings this year.

More athletes are always welcome at Kendal AAC. The club is running a series of “come and try” events at Queen Katherine School, starting at 1800 on 24 April.

Kendal’s Ghyllside Primary School emerged as winners of the first South Lakes Primary Schools Sportshall Tournament, beating off teams from six other schools to win the trophy. The tournament, held at the Lakes Leisure Centre on 23 November, consisted of a decathlon of running, jumping and throwing events, with all points from each competitor counting towards the total.

Organised by South Cumbria and North Lancashire Athletics Network in partnership with Kendal AAC, the tournament attracted schools from Crosthwaite, Grange, Kendal, Natland and Old Hutton, with each team having a boy and girl from Years 4, 5 and 6. Sixth-formers from Kirkbie Kendal School played their part, too, as volunteer race officials and scorers for the individual sportshall events.

Although the honours for top individual points scorers were spread between pupils from four schools, it was Ghyllside’s team of Scarlett Thomas, Jim O’Reilly, Stephanie Driscoll, Samuel Medhurst, Morgan Chorley and Kurt Ripley who were the overall victors, and hence first to have their school’s name engraved on the new tournament shield.

Kendal AC and England international Craig Roberts took the M45 crown at Saturday’s 9th World Masters Mountain Running Championships, with Ireland’s Mags Greenan retaining her over 50 women’s title that she won in 2008 in the Czech Republic. Mags won by 29 seconds from Germans Uschi Bergler and Christine Sachs (image courtesy of MST).

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From the gun Danny Parkinson (Kendal) took up the running, with Dave Archer, (Hallamshire) second. Local athlete, Anthony Valentine in 3rd place. Tipton’s Mick Hill was chasing hard to reduce the gap as they completed the first lap (image courtesy of astleyrunners).

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Craig Roberts won his 10th Pen Y Ghent fell race (image courtesy of MST).

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UNDER a blazing April sun, at the Sheepmount Stadium Carlisle, the under 11s from Kendal AAC dominated their first Cumbria League meeting of the year.... MORE >>

A team of 17 athletes, managed by Kendal AC’s Lisa Screen, competed for Cumbria in the Northwest Regional Sportshall Finals at Robin Park Wigan on 27th February. The team consisting of 11 Under 13 girls and 6 Under 15 girls was selected through local trials and was made up of athletes from Kendal AC, Ellenborough AC, Barrow & Furness Striders AC and Kirkbie Kendal School. They faced strong opposition from teams from Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire.
The team came away with 6 medals with the highlight of the day being the gold medals won by Brogan Stewart and Heather Ramsay in the U15 girls 8 lap paarlauf. Heather also won 3 more medals with silver in the 2 lap race, bronze in the speed bounce, just one bounce behind the silver medal and silver in the all round athlete.

The 6th medal was won by Katie Woof when she took the bronze in the U13 girls vertical jump. Although she didn’t win a medal, a special mention needs to go to Katie-Jo Clark who put in a valiant effort in the U13 4 lap race putting aside her pre race nerves to finish 5th in a closely fought race. There was only 2 tenths of a second between 1st and 5th places with Katie-Jo being given the same time as 4th place.

All the individual points scored by the athletes accrued to give the team total with both the U15 girls and the U13 girls finishing in 4th place.

Junior Athletes from Kendal Athletics Club competed against teams from all over the country at the Sportshall finals held at Sport City in Manchester on 23rd January. Athletes aging from 9-11 years old were selected from local trials held by Kendal AAC and came from various local schools including; Grange, Staveley, St Thomas’s, Stramongate, Ghyllside, Natland, Castle Park and Heron Hill. Kendal Town Council and Lakeland made the trials possible after generously donating money that paid for much needed new equipment and places to train.

Each Athlete gained points for the club by competing in track and field events against much larger teams. After a fantastic effort on the day the overall score for the Girls team was 330 points, the Boy’s team managed a brilliant score of 342 points. Well done to everyone involved! T-shirts, which were donated by Aviva were awarded to the highest scoring boy and girl at the trials and they went to 11 year old Amy Wood and 10 year old Daniel Abbott.