Preston Harriers’ youngster Isaac Delaney celebrates gold at English Schools’ meet

This took place in Derby last weekend.

Delaney threw well throughout the competition and won the U17 category with a throw of 18.43.

He and the Welsh champion have competed against each other for several years but it was Delaney’s turn to win resoundingly.His winning throw was almost a metre ahead of second place. What was outstanding to see was the friendship between all teams in all disciplines, whether it was sprinters, long distance runners or jumpers.

Between these two competitions, Delaney was chosen for the school team games at Loughborough where he won a silver medal.

He was also selected by the England throws coaches to compete in an Under-18s international throws competition, where he threw his PB of 18.53 and won silver behind the u20 champion.

Delaney is now ranked number one in the country for his age group.

Elsewhere, Preston Harriers had two teams at this year’s Calderdale Way Relay, normally held in May.

The race is 51 miles and involves 6 legs where each leg is run in pairs and runners must stay together.

The teams had a distinct cosmopolitan flavour. Alongside the locals from the Preston area, were runners from Wales, Northern Ireland, Germany, Russia, Hungary, and Poland.

Gethin Butler and Mariusz Kovacs got the team off to a solid start finishing 19th in 1:35:08. The short 4.8 miles, mainly uphill, leg three gave an opportunity to 16 year old Vladimir Wiggins to make his debut with the seniors, running with John Griffiths (Vet 50), finishing in 51:56.

The standout performance of the day came from Alistair Palmer and Wes Wilkinson finishing eighth fastest on leg four in 1:21:48.

Andy Acklam and Maciej Jarno completed the last leg for a final team position of 24th in 8:14:50.

The B team was a mixed team with six men and six women running.

They were led off by the two Steves, Needham and Mort, who completed leg one in 1:48:31 to hand over to the girls, Emma Essex-Crosby and Katey Markland.

They had an excellent run over Stoodley Pike and down to Todmorden to finish in 1:29:03 for 35th position on that leg.

Jim Doherty and Roy Parkinson completed the tougher leg four to Wainstalls before handing over to Anna Keller and Olga Wiggins, for the 7.5-mile leg, finishing in 1:29:16. The older statesman pairing of Alan Appleby (Vet 70) and Mick McLoughlin (Vet 65) ran the last leg to give a finish time of 9:45:21 and 43rd position, out of the 63 teams.