High Peak AC took a large team of 27 young athletes to the first of the season’s Derbyshire mini-league track and field meetings at Derby Moorways stadium on Saturday 29th April 2017. 

On a fresh and breezy day, the High Peak team competed against athletes from four other Derbyshire clubs  – Derby AC, Amber Valley and Erewash AC, Chesterfield AC and Buxton AC. In the U11 girls there were wins in the 80m and 600m races for Alice Tolley, with Alice just missing out on the Derbyshire mini-league 600m record by 0.08 of a second! There was also a strong debut from Plum Kidd in the 80 and 150m races. Thalia Parker-Heath and Sienna Jackson scored team points in the howler javelin, and there was a committed performance from Martha Harris-Wood in the 80m.  Plum, Thalia, Martha & Alice also formed a 4 x 100m relay team, they came a very credible 4th place behind some strong AVAEC teams. 

In the U11 boys competition there was a fantastic performance from Samuel McGill by winning the Long Jump with a jump of 3.23m. The HPAC U11 team also consisted of Jed Burton, Dylan Taylor, Robert Wilson and Xavier Morgan, with all competing strongly and scoring points for the team in the 80m (Dylan and Jed), 150m (Xavier and Jed), 600m (Xavier and Samuel), High Jump (Dylan) and Howler Javelin (Robert). 

The U13 girls team consisted of Freyer Hatcher, Eva-Jane Berry, Marissa Jackson, Amy Witts, Olivia Heywood, and Jamie-Lee Taylor.  Freya starred in the Shot coming a fantastic first, with a throw of 6.73 meters.  Other highlights for the girls included a 6th place out of 19 for Jamie-Lee in a very competitive 800m, and 11th in the same race for Olivia who was enjoying her first meeting. 

For the under 13 boys, the team of David Lavers, Gregor McGill, and Morgan Barker all put in 100% effort. Gregor ran strongly in the 800m, whilst there were fabulous high scoring performances from David and Morgan in the discus.  

The very strong under 15 girls team consisted of Katie Taylor, Cheyenne Wright, Megan Harris-Wood, Ruby Burton, Aimee Sweetmore, Elspeth Morgan, Nell Tolley, Nichole Johnston, Sasha Scragg and Sosseh Badjie. There were stellar performances across the events from all girls, Sosseh’s 800m win stands out, where she achieved a personal best of 2.24.87. A number of other personal bests on the day, including Megan in the 100m & 200m, Nell in the 100m.  Cheyenne also ran a very pleasing 800m, Katie Taylor was 4th in the shot put and Sasha put in a good time in the 75m hurdles.  

The two HPAC 4 x100m girls relay teams ran excellent races with Team A consisting of Sosseh, Aimee, Katie & Megan finishing 2nd.  Team B, Nell, Nicole, Ruby and Sasha coming in 7th place.

In the Boys U15 HPAC team Eddie Fenton ran a lightening fast 26.45 coming 3rd in the 200m. Freddie Hatcher was the centre of attention when winning the 80m hurdles race, and Gabriel Parker-Heath gained valuable points for the team in the 800m race.

All in all it was a very satisfying start for the HPAC team. Currently in 4th place after the first meeting, with AVEAC in first place.  The next meeting in the league will be on 27th May, with lots of points to play for!

Finally, a mention for outstanding performances from a couple of HPAC athletes: Alice Tolley who competed for HPAC at the Trafford AC open T&F medal meeting on Monday 29thApril, she won the 600m gold medal against a strong field, in doing so recorded the third best 600m time in the UK this year for U11 girls with a time of 1.53.74.  Also Sosseh Badjie who ran the Junior Marple 2k Park run on Sunday 7th May, she knocked an amazing 22 seconds off her own PB and 8 seconds off the course record, running it in a time of 7.16mins, this making her the overall fastest junior at Marple!  Girl Power!