Wakefield Harriers' Joshua Akintolu rises to second in UK rankings

High jump star Joshua Akintolu showed his versatility by easily winning the under 15s title with a magnificent haul of 2842 points, a new U15 boys club pentathlon record.

This easily beat the previous record set in 2016 by Aran Thomas and is a score that places him second in the UK rankings.

His performances in the five events were 80m hurdles 12.61s, high jump 1.86m, shot put 10.83m, long jump 6.13m and 800m 2m 26.1s.

The long jump was a new personal best that currently places him joint first in the UK in that event as well.

Wakefield’s Romy Fagan also had a great day, finishing sixth in the U15 girls pentathlon with 2647 points.

She recorded four PBs, including an excellent 1.62m in the high jump, which places her eighth in the UK rankings.

Ella Bickerdyke also did well to finish sixth in the U20 heptathlon with 3527 points.

And Harriers’ Sylvie Ellis finished 16th in the U17 heptathlon with a 2883 points haul.

Harriers’ young athletes team had another good victory in the third match in the Premier Division of the Yorkshire & District Athletics League, at Cleethorpes and their third successive win will almost certainly confirm them as league champions again.

The best performances came from the U13 hurdlers, with Lily Keeler running a new U13 girls club 70m hurdles record of 11.80 seconds, trimming her previous record set a few weeks ago and Ethan Ford equalling his U13 boys club 75m hurdles record of 13.10 seconds.

Lily's discus throw of 25.22m and 75m time of 10.40s were also Grade 1 performances while Ethan also ran a quick 80m in 10.90 seconds.

There were also top quality performances from Rosie Thistlewood (U17 women 800m – 2:18.1 and 300m – 44.10s); Isabella Tutt (U17 women 300m – 43.90s) and Tom Nixon (U17 men’s 400m – 53.30).

Match Result: Wakefield District Harriers & AC 589 points, Barton & Goole 494, Cleethorpes AC 484, Pontefract AC 393, Skyrac AC 167.