EIGHT athletes from Halesowen Athletics Club took on the London Marathon last weekend, including two of the juniors who were awarded their places through regional trials.

Abigail Saker, 15, finished the event’s mini marathon over three miles in 17.35, placing 20th overall in the under-17 age category. Team-mate Lily Higgins finished 52nd in 19.07.

Meanwhile, Lily’s dad, Mark, took on the 26.2-mile main event, finishing in a respectable 4.00.19. Also running for Halesowen was Matthew Brown (3.30.50), Russell Cadwallader (2.57.23), Simon Duck (3.13.54), David Lewis (3.04.05) and Joseph Phillips (3.03.50).

On the same day, under-13 and under-15 athletes from the club travelled to Derby to take part in the first Youth Development League event of the season.

The juniors performed well providing a team result of fourth out of the eight clubs within the division.

Iris Oliarnyk had a great opening event of the season winning the under-15 100m (13.1s), the high jump (150m) and the shot put (11.23m).

Throwers Tristan Dunn and Michael Detheridge had successful under-15 discus and hammer events.

Dunn won the discus A event with a throw of 34.57m, some six metres clear of the second placed athlete and rewarding him with a PB. Detheridge won the B event with a PB of 17.77m. In the hammer, Dunn threw seven meters clear of the second-placed athlete with a throw of 36.07m. Detheridge threw 17.05m to win the B event.