The first National Young Athletes Grand Prix event of the new season took place at Tipton in the West Midlands and our Young Athletes did particularly well.

In the Under 17 Boys 5,000m Mark Pratt took half a minute off his best ever time. An exciting race saw Mark catch the early leader Ben Casey (Yeovil) after four laps. For the next seven laps they challenged each other only for Casey to make his sprint for the line one lap too soon and the Sheffield walker caught him again with 300m to go, after which they could not be separated and they crossed the line together in 27.47 to provide the Grand Prix with it’s first ever dead heat in it’s 14 year history.

In the women’s 3,000m Sheffield took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, beaten only by Commonwealth Games 2002 Silver medallist Lisa Kehler from Wolverhampton. Rebecca Mersh was the first Under 20 in 14.40 with Kathryn Granger (15.36) holding off the challenge of clubmate Natalie Myers to claim the top U17 spot. Natalie’s personal best of 15.41 kept her within 7 seconds of Kathryn. There was also a win for U15 boy Tyler Bower over 2,000 getting close to his best with 11.51.

Sheffield left this first event in second place in both the Boys and the Girls competitions, but top of the table in the overall category.