C.D.A.N. Spring Festival of Athletics – 30th April 2023

by Colin Everson

Fifteen Crook Juniors took part in the Spring Festival of Athletics with our club being represented in 4 of the 5 age categories – Under 9’s; U11’s; U13’s and Under 15’s.

The Festival is a ‘Quadkids’ type event with our young athletes doing 4 events
– Howler Throw, Long Jump, Longer Runs and Sprints.

It was held at Stadium 2000 at Shildon, so very familiar surroundings.
A big thank you to Aycliffe Running Club for hosting the Festival.

The event was well supported with a total of 88 competitors taking part – 46 boys and 42 girls. Teams from six network clubs were represented – Aycliffe R.C.; Chester Le Street; Crook Juniors; Derwentside A.C.; Phoenix Flyers and Sedgefield Harriers.

This meant that most of the best young athletes in County Durham were at the Festival and so our juniors were up against some very strong competition.
Everything went well on the day except for the weather. There was steady, continuous rain throughout but it did not dampen our junior’s enthusiasm.

Thank you to Clare for getting the numbers etc. sorted out and to Harry, Clare, Laura and Kimberly for looking after the sprint events in the pouring rain.

Although perhaps a bit early in the season for personal bests there were nevertheless plenty of good performances across all the age groups. We did particularly well in the youngest age category with Charlie first overall, Henry third and Olivia third girl. There were fast times in the 800m from Reagan and Matty. Alex was first in the Under 15’s Howler throw in difficult weather conditions for throwing.

Hopefully Crook Juniors can build on the spring time promise with even better performances in the summer.