TWO of Warrington Athletics Club’s young stars became Northern champions over the weekend.

Training partners Jordan Jones and Joe Buckley both came home with gold medals after competing at the Northern Age Group Championships in Liverpool.

Jones dominated the under 17s men’s 1500m steeplechase race – leading from gun to tape as he recorded a time of 4mins 44.04secs to take victory.

Jordan Jones is presented with his gold medal

Buckley was able to emulate his clubmate in the under 17s men’s 3000m, coming home in 9mins 12.07secs.

Joe Buckley on his way to victory in the 3000m. Picture by Dave Wood

Joe Buckley atop the podium

Another Warrington medallist was under 15s sprinter Ashley Nemits, who stepped up to the under 17s age group.

Despite racing older athletes, she finished third in her 200m heat before setting a new personal best time of 25.35secs in the final, which was enough for her to claim a bronze medal.

Nemits’ time was also narrowly outside the Warrington Athletics Club 200m record of 25.3secs, which was set by K Sykes way back in 1974.

Cameron Duff and Jadon Allen were both agonising close to medals as they came fourth in their respective finals.

Allen won his under 15s boys’ 100m heat in 12.4secs before clocking 12.33secs in the final, while Duff came home in 24.16secs in the under 17s men’s 200m final having finished second in his heat.

Having finished fourth in her under 13s girls’ 200m heat in a personal-best 29.24secs, Shauna Clarke placed eighth in the final in 30.08secs while fellow under 13s runner Amelia Smithers also finished eighth in the 800m.

Meg Corker was hindered by injury in the under 15s girls’ 75m hurdles and just jogged from the third hurdle onwards, finishing sixth in her heat.

Before that, though, she had reason to celebrate as she was presented with the club’s Bertha Crowther Memorial Award on Monday night.

Corker was chosen for her performance at the Cheshire Championships in May, where she won the 75m hurdles and broke the club and championship records in the process by clocking 11.4secs – the best performance on the track by a female athlete.

Meg Corker with the Bertha Crowley Memorial Award

Elsewhere, masters athlete Neal Petley travelled to Paris to compete in the Gay Games and brought home a gold medal.

His winning time of 16.45secs in the 100m hurdles was a new championship record in the over 50s age group.

He also finished third in his 100m heat, sixth in the long jump with a season’s best jump of 4.75m and 10th in the high jump.

Neal Petley with his 100m hurdles gold medal at the Gay Games in Paris