Warrington Athletics Club youngster honoured for unbeaten season

Hurdler Lewis Shaw, who is from St Helens but competes for the Victoria Park-based club, was named as Young Sportsperson of the Year at the Pride of St Helens Awards.

It is the latest in a string of awards for the youngster following a season in which he won every race he competed in and rose to the top of the UK rankings for his under 17s age group.

The Merseyside Track Athletics Association also named him as their outstanding under 17s athlete of the year while he also scooped their male track performance of the year award.

Meanwhile, with much of the country being battered by stormy weather over the weekend, Louise Blizzard will have been thankful to be competing in sunnier climes.

And at the end of a gruelling four-day challenge in Cyprus, the Warrington Athletics Club member was able to come home with an age-group victory.

For the second year in a row, Blizzard was competing in the Leptos Cyprus 4-Day Challenge and in all four races – a 6km road time trial, an 11km hill race, an all-terrain half-marathon and finally a 10km road race – she recorded faster times than she did in 2023.

Her 6km time trial effort of 24mins 42secs was the third-fastest women’s time, but she was then the fastest woman in the 11km Akamas Hill Run by completing the course in 1hour 3mins 42secs.

Saturday saw her take on a half-marathon race that involved 1,700 feet of climbing and while she battled hard, she was eventually unable to stay with her two rivals in the women’s rankings, Charlotte Preece of the Royal Logistics Corps and Sittingbourne’s Troy Penfield.

She eventually finished in 1hour 46mins 44secs but heading into the final day’s 10km race, she was third in the women’s standings.

That was where she finished in the final race, with a 10km time of 43mins 8secs giving her a total time of 3hours 58mins 18secs across the four races, which saw her the fastest in her 45-49 age group.

Louise Blizzard, right, competing in Cyprus over the weekend (Image: Contributed) Closer to home, Warrington Athletics Club had 13 of its members in action at the British Athletics Cross Challenge on Saturday, with trials for the European Cross Country Championships included in the under 20s and senior age groups.

The results for Warrington AC members were as follows:

Under 11s boys: Alex Farrell (31st, 7mins 54secs)

Under 11s girls: Emilia Gandy (18th, 8mins 23secs), Ivy Davidson (25th, 8mins 32secs)

Under 17s women: Imogen Wharton (34th, 17mins 52secs), Hannah Hull (63rd, 19mins 27secs)

Under 17s men: Tom Welsby (70th, 15mins 47secs), Elliot Taylor (134th, 17mins 28secs), Harvey Howard (149th, 18mins 22secs)

Under 20s women: Lucie Davies (81st, 19mins 14secs), Eleanor Grace (83rd, 19mins 34secs)

Under 23s women: Ellen Turnbull (53rd, 25mins 1sec)

Senior men: Cameron Field (65th, 29mins 9secs), Jack Wadsworth (90th, 30mins 13secs)

Emilia Gandy and Ivy Davidson after competing at the British Athletics Cross Challenge (Image: Contributed) Elsewhere, all four of the club’s members in action at the Northern Athletics November Indoor Open in Sheffield came away with either personal or season’s bests.

Personal bests over 60m were recorded by Leah Poole (under 15s, 8.78secs), Rosie Carters (under 13s, 9.44secs) and Alistair Robson (under 17s, 8.14secs). Leah and Alistair both finished sixth, with Rosie finishing seventh.

Tallie Sze came away with two season’s bests in the under 17s age group, finishing fourth over 150m in 19.97secs and sixth over 60m in 8.17secs.

Over in Leeds, masters athlete Dave Gill was a silver medallist in the Ken Mayor 5km road race which also incorporated the Northern Masters Championships.

He finished 19th overall by clocking 20mins 41secs, placing him second-fastest in his age group.