The joint Durham City Harriers and Durham University long sprint group had six athletes competing  in the Northern Indoor Championships at the EIS in Sheffield over the weekend of 14th/15th January 2017. Five of the athletes competed over 400m with the other racing over 800m.

Rob Shipley (DU) won gold in the senior men’s 400m whilst Jason Hoyle (DU) took fourth place in the same race. Jason was very frustrated as his tactic of running at the back of the field for the entire race until the (very short) home strait robbed him of a medal by a couple of tenths! Both performances however confirmed the significant progress they have made since joining the DCH coached group.

Another athlete to also confirm progress made since transferring to the group was Scott Armstrong (DCH). Scott joined the group with a 400 PB of 54.80 last June. Last Saturday, despite being only the 13th fastest out of an entry of 18 athletes in the U/20 400 he lined up in the six runner final after a big PB of 52.79 in his heat. Scott is still working out what his best event will be!

In the Senior women’s 800 Samantha Coleby (DCH) had a solid run to win the silver medal to go with the gold medal she won in the same event at the outdoor Northern Championships last summer.

As with all of the long sprint group, those listed are currently only engaged in winter work with competition focused training yet to start. They all therefore look forward to the summer season with some optimism.

Gold, Silver, fourth place and a big PB at Sheffield