D.S.E Junior Nationals Stanley Park, Blackpool
Four months after he mounted a successful defence of his London Mini Wheelchair Marathon Wheelchair title, Mickey Bushell scored a hat trick of track victories at the Disabled National Junior Championships at a very wet and windy Stanley Park in Blackpool last weekend.
14-year old Mickey struck 3 gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m races. He also established new National Under 15 age group records for 200m and 400m at a meeting, which attracted 370 athletes from all over Britain.
Not to be outdone, Steven Mason picked up 3 gold medals for the same three distances plus a bronze for the 4X60m Relay. Steven also broke the National 100m age group record.
Kieron Murphy convincingly won the distance club, with an impressive throw of 21.30m into a strong head wind!
Kevin Ward took home a pair of silver medals from the 400m and 800m races and a bronze for his 200m.
Mickey, Kevin, Steven and another racer from the West Midlands, Jake Carrington finished in silver medal positions in both the 4X100m and 4X400m Relays.
Mickey and Kieron’s future performances are to be monitored by the UK Athletics Disability Programme team.
The West Midlands emerged as the winning region again for the third consecutive year in an extremely successful Championship for the leading club in the region.
At the same windswept venue a trio of veteran members from the Birchfield Harriers Long Distance Walking Squad were runners up to the Lancashire Walking Club in the Blackpool Open Fifty Miles Race Walking Championships, which on safety grounds has replaced the historic Manchester to Blackpool Race Walk.
A month before his 49th birthday, Aston Postman Parminder Bhatti completed the course in 10 hours and 15 minutes. 60-year-old John Fenton who is a retired Postman followed some twenty-two minutes after his former Royal Mail colleague. 59-year old David Fall from Erdington finished five minutes less than eleven hours in a test of endurance which includes half a dozen laps of the 400m running track and no less than 28 laps round a 2.5 miles circuit of Stanley Park!
Tom McCook