A new development this season in the Isle of Man Track & Field League sponsored by Bakertilly IOM is the award of ‘Athlete of the Meeting’ in each of the six rounds.
Max Hammal (Manx Harriers) was the first recipient after the opening round held on May 1, as decided by the IOM Athletics committee.
He is pictured being congratulated on his award by his coach Andy Fox.
Athlete of the meeting
To gain the award he ran a new personal best time in winning the under 15 boys 800 metres race. Max is in his first year in the age group.
Last year Max ran 2 min 24.4 secs for the distance, and he revised that at the recent match by nearly 14 seconds to finish in 2min 10.6 secs.
Max is fairly new to the sport having taken up training seriously around 20 months ago.
Love for athletics
Before that he ran the popular Park Runs, and took part in a number of keep-fit challenges before discovering his love for athletics.
He started training with the Manx Harriers junior middle-distance group and now works with the Manx Harriers seniors on a regular basis such are the strides he has taken forward.
In January he just missed out on a place in the Lancashire Cross-Country team for the Inter-Counties Championships.
However, he has been chomping at the bit for the track and field season to begin and he certainly started it with a big performance.
Max said when hearing of the award “I really enjoyed the race, but I know I can definitely run faster! Thanks go to Andy Fox and all the senior athletes I train with as well as Corbyn Schade for dragging me round in the race.”
For more athletics news go to Manxathletics.com.
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