JUNIOR athletes from Halesowen Athletics Club have competed in their first track meet of the season.

Youngsters travelled to Leicester on Saturday, May 3 to take on other clubs across the area.

There were a host of encouraging performances as the club finished second behind Radley AC in the first event of the Youth Development League.

In the sprint events, Lauren Whensley ran 10.8s to take the win for Halesowen in the under-13 girls 75m A race, with Tate Hendrickson taking the win in the B race in 11.2s.

It was another double win in the under-13 boys 100m races with Harvey Warmington-Christmas winning the A race over 1.5 seconds ahead of the second placed Leicester athlete. Isaac Gold won the B race in 14.0s. Another double-headed win came in the under-15 boys 100m races with Charles Hilliard finishing in 11.6s in the A race and James Andrews running 12.3s in the B.

The under-15 girls 100m saw Halesowen athlete Molly Jenks awarded the same 13.0s time as the winner, Megan Broad, from Telford AC, but had to settle for second place and it was a similar story in the B race with Lauryn Elliot taking second in 13.9s, the same time as awarded to the first-placed Radley athlete. Iris Oliarnyk ran a brilliant 20.5s in the under-13 girls 150m race, over a second ahead of the second placed athlete.

Harvey Warmington-Christmas took another win, this time in the 200m sprint, clearing first place 3.4 seconds clear of the second placed athlete in a time of 27.4s.

The wins kept coming amongst the sprints with Josie Oliarnyk taking the under-15 200m A race in 25.8s, Molly Jenks, the B race in 27.2s and Charles Hilliard the under-15 300m A in 36.3s.

Under-15 Isaac Elliott won his 800m B race in 2.40 but the club had to wait for the distance to increase even further for the next flurry of wins. This came in the form of Lilly Higgins winning the under-15 1500m A race in 5.07.4 and Livvy Worth the B in 5.08.0.

The relays went well for the club with them winning both the boys and girls under-15 4x100m, the girls under-13 4 x 100m and the girls under-15 4 x 300m.

On the field, Katrina Simpson won the under-15 girls high jump with a leap of 1.50m.

In the long jump Tristan Dunn jumped 3.77m to win the under-13 boys event. Josie Oliarnyk jumped 5.09m to win the under-15 girls A event with Molly Jenks winning the B with 4.80m. Keeping it in the family, Josie’s sister Iris Oliarnyk took the under-13 win with a leap of 4.85m.

Shot putt saw Charlies Hilliard throw 9.10m to win the under-15 boys event for the club with Josie Oliarnyk throwing 9.08m to take the under-15 girls event. Under-13 athlete Lauren Whensley threw 7.96 to win her B event.

Lee Wright took the under-15 discuss event to another level throwing 8m further than the second placed athlete with a distance of 33.95m for the win. Sam Chance took the B win with 20.13.

The hammer throw saw Lee Wright take second in the under-15 boys event with a distance of 26.73m, with Sam Chance taking the B win in 19.41m. Sam went on to then take the win in the Javelin B event with a throw of 30.57m.