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The finale to the Sportshall athletics season is a UK final at the NEC Birmingham between teams representing the regions of England and the other countries of the UK. Before that county teams contest regional finals for the honour of representing their region. This year, two Handforth athletes, James Grannan and Joel Norman, were selected for the Cheshire team that gathered for the North West Final at Robin Park, Wigan on 22nd February.
James and his under-15s team-mates faced rivals from Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, with Joel’s age group (under 13s) also including a team from Cumbria. The schedule contained most of the events familiar from the NW League with the addition of high jump and obstacle relay for the under-13s and paarlauf races in both age groups. There were girls team in both age groups too.
Joel with first up, having the dubious honour of being the first Cheshire boy to compete as he led off the obstacle relay. His lightning start immediately put him in a good position and he handed over in 2nd place to his team-mate, a placing that the Cheshire team held to the finishing line. His next event was speed bounce where, despite a couple of slips, he earned 6th place with 71 bounces. Joel’s final event was his least favourite, the 6-lap relay time trial, where he again came in 6th out of the 12 runners.
James was also picked for speed bounce where his 77 bounces earned him a respectable 6th place. Next came the standing long jump where he achieved a best jump of 2.24m. Then it was on to his preferred track events, starting with the 4-lap time trial race. James’s sportshall experience showed here as he paced himself perfectly in the more competitive of the two heats allowing him to take fourth place overall for the event. Finally there was the 8-lap Paarlauf, an interesting really in which 2 runners for each team run 4 laps each but in any combination of their own choice. The event turned out to be a stand-off between just two teams with Lancashire just beating the Cheshire pair to take maximum points.
And the final outcome? With so many events and no team with an obvious clear advantage, it was impossible for the spectators to keep track of scores, so there was an excited buzz as the athletes assembled for the presentations. In the end it turned out to be an extraordinarily successful day for Cheshire who took first place in three out of the four categories, and narrowly missed out in the under-15 boys event as there 635 points was just 9 behind the winners, Lancashire. A shame for James, after his fantastic contribution to sportshall for Handforth, but an exciting day at the NEC in prospect for Joel.
Altogether this was a superb event. The Cheshire team managers were positive and supportive. The final was extremely well-organised and conducted in a great atmosphere. And a final thought for our other athletes - compete in the league next season and you may be noticed by our county selectors!
Mark Norman