On Saturday Wallasey's younger athletes travelled to Pilkington's recreation centre for the Northern junior and youth championships, but because of a strong wind performances were generally lower than usual.
One exception to this rule, however, was Wallasey's Pete Lewis, who has recently returned from Durham' University. Pete, competing in the junior 400 metres, won his heat convincingly, running strongly from an outside position until he reached the home straight where he began to ease up. In the final he again ran hard from the gun covering the first 300 metres very fast. As he came into the straight the wind took its toll and he just managed to hold his lead by inches at the tape. Pete's time of 50.9 seconds was a personal best by half-a-second.
Apart from this victory Wallasey had a rather disappointing day. In the same event Ian Wilson went out in his heat in a time of 52.3 seconds.
In the youths' 1500 metres Bob Brimage, running below form, came seventh in his heat, clocking 4m 34.2s. Gary Fair in the same event qualified for the final in fourth position with a time of 4m 16.4s. In the final he made a hard effort to stay with the leaders but they slowly went away from him in the latter stages of the race and he finished seventh in a time of 4m 22s.
Bob Warburton won his heat of the youths' 800 metres in the slow time of 2m 8.7s but only managed fifth place in the final in 2m 7.7s.
Wallasey's two field event competitors fared no better than the track runners. Terry Leach came 5th in the junior javelin with a throw of 136 feet 8 inches and Andy Fulton finished 8th in the youths' shot with a put of 35 feet. Both these competitors were below form but both have the consolation that they can compete in the same age groups next year.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Friday, 11/07/1969 by RWW
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