The Yorkshire Track and Field Championships

The Yorkshire Track and Field Championships saw a clean sweep for Hyde Park Harriers in the Women’s 3000m walk.

Agatha Kowalska continued her impressive start to the season with a personal best 13:18.79, finishing almost 8 seconds ahead of the male winner, Leeds based Isle of Man athlete Tom Partington.

Erika Pontorollo took second place nipping under 16:00 by 1.6 seconds. Her time of 15:58.40 was also a PB. The clean sweep was completed by Pagen Spooner’s 18:24.93 performance.

The race was not without controversy however. Athletes were upset, and a veritable social media storm followed, when the rule on wearing smart watches was wrongly applied by race officials. Athletes were told to remove watches that did not contravene the rules, and since the track at Cudworth did not have clocks linked to the gun at 200m nor 400m they were unable to judge their pacing accurately. Unfortunately despite protests the officials continued to wrongly apply the rule throughout the day. Three days later if was still the “talk of the track” amongst athletes and coaches at Leeds Beckett.

And this wasn’t the only incident. Sheffield athlete Natalie Myers was disqualified for leaving the track without permission. She stepped off the track momentarily to be sick. Although she sought no advantage by her action, the incident was rightly reported, and the referee chose to disqualify her rather than caution her. Athletics can be a tough world when medals are at stake.

3000W SX (12 May)

Pos

Perf

Name

Year

Coach

Club

13:18.79

Agata Kowalska

U23

Hyde Park Harriers/Poland

13:18.79