Sunday 19th April 2026, Churchill Playing Fields Whitley Bay.
Report by Jan&Ken
With their cross country spikes put away for the season and no mud in sight, it was now time for our juniors to embark on track and field.
This year saw the start of the new age groups – under 18s/16s/14s. So unfortunately no under 12 athletes, but this age category (years 5/6) have their own Funetics competitions which take place on Friday evenings at Chester le Street on the same weekend as the NEYDL fixtures.
Yet again some juniors were competing outside their comfort zone with Andrea and her band of helpers putting on throwing and jumping sessions on a club night and Simon doing the same at Hexham on Saturday mornings to try and help build confidence resulting in loads of PBs.
The weather was sunny, but cold when the clouds came over. It was great to see when we come together as a team not only in the stadium but outside as well with coaches, parents, grandparents and other family members all supporting our juniors. There were 16 clubs on show and 8 teams as some teams are amalgamated for this series of meetings.
We paired up with our good friends from South Shields once again. Elswick had 24 competing and South Shields had 7 competing with us.
Remember you also score points for how many officials you have so please feel free to volunteer. You don’t need to have any officiating qualifications, although if you are interested, there are training courses available to achieve level 1.
Provisional Team Results after one meeting.
Chester/Durham 579
Middlesbrough 467
Elswick/South Shields 457
Blay/Walls/Gosf 451
Birtley/J&H/Phoenix Fly 392
New Marske 384
Tynedale/Prudhoe 372
Morpeth/Tynebridge 319
It was a great start to our track and field season. The next meeting is at Shildon Sunnydale Leisure Centre, DL4 2EP on Sunday 17th May. If you did not compete at this meeting try to get to the next one. You can make a day of it and bring a picnic or just turn up for your events – whatever works for you.
From All The Junior Coaches