06-05-2025
Teen hurdler's incredible grit to cross finish line after three falls
Teen hurdler's incredible grit to cross finish line after three falls
Three medals for Thomas Farrell - gold in the soft javelin, bronze in the 600m and bronze in the standing long jump (Image: Contributed)
A WARRINGTON athlete fell over three times in a race and showed incredible grit to cross the finish line.
And not put off, tough cookie Leah Russek showed her mettle again when she returned to the track later in the day in a different event and achieved a personal best time.
The day started well for the Warrington Athletics Club under 13s competitor.
Russek made her debut in the 70m hurdles in the Warrington AC Hurdles Festival and Junior Open staged at Victoria Park on Sunday.
She won in 17.13secs but it was in the second running of the event a little later that she suffered three falls.
Russek hit a hurdle and fell but did not give up, returned to her feet and continued.
But she hit the next hurdle and hit the deck again.
Undeterred she got up again and continued only to hit the final hurdle and fell for a third time.
The determined youngster got up to finish in 26.32 seconds - after picking up her shoe which had come off!
For some, that might have been enough for one day but not Russek.
After having been persuaded to get first aid treatment, she ran in the 800 metres and finished fourth in a personal best 3mins 05.01secs.
Meanwhile, Olivia Crawford won both runnings of the under 17s women's 80m in 11.79secs and 11.73secs respectively.
In the under 20s men's 110m, Lewis Shaw continued his winning streak by smashing his PB with 14.76secs – going under 15 seconds for the first time and moving to third place on the UK rankings.
In the under 17s women's 300m hurdles second claim member Evie Elliott running under Bury AC set a new personal best time of 46.50 seconds.
Luis Davidson ran superbly in the under nines boys' 600m to win in 2mins 00.05secs.
Behind him in third place, Thomas Farrell, who was also third in the standing long jump, won the soft javelin in 15.72m.
Georgia Clarke won the under nines girls 75m in 13.98 seconds, while in the standing long jump and soft javelin Linda Szekely came out on top with 1.41m and 7.33m respectively.
In the under 11s age group, Otis Milliken won the soft javelin in 16.36m.
