Three Manx Harriers juniors contested the English Schools Race Walking Championships in windy, cool conditions at Boston, Lincs last weekend.

Tom Partington represented West Yorkshire Schools as he is now based in Leeds and attending college there, enabling him to train at the National Centre for Race Walking in Leeds Beckett University.

His aim was to try and hold 1min 45sec laps throughout the senior boys’ 5km event, which he managed in the early stages.

But after the first couple of kilometres he found that he had not quite recovered from his maiden 20km race in the island a couple of weeks previously and he felt ’heavy-legged’.

Nonetheless he stuck to his task and still recorded a more than decent 22m 26.90s performance for the silver medal, behind the metronomic Chris Snook of Hampshire Schools who recorded a lifetime best 21.31.37 for the win.

Abbie Edwards contested the junior girls’ 3km event in what was her first off-island competition, having only recently stepped up to the distance.

After a relatively cautious start, her confidence grew as the race progressed to finish seventh, holding her good technique throughout and managing to dip under 20 minutes in a personal best time of 19m 57.99s.

This was 30 seconds quicker than her previous best time, set only two weeks previously.

The intermediate girls’ 3km was dominated by South Yorkshire’s Ana Garcia who took the win in 15m 12.16s.

Things were much more tightly-packed behind her. Manx girl Alice Bellando was clinging to the back of this second group in the early stages, but they gradually edged away.

While Alice put in a big effort to close them down in the latter stages, she was not quite able to do enough to catch the main bunch.

Ultimately, only 30 seconds divided second-placed Isabelle Bridge of Kent and Alice, who took fifth position in 17m 13.70s, just one second shy of her personal best, showing that this age group is providing close competition.

l The Isle of Man team of Abbie and Alice was supported by Isle of Man Schools’ Sports Association for this event, which was greatly appreciated.