THE BEGINNING
The City of Wakefield has a long standing athletic tradition with records showing the first organised athletic club being in existence as far back as 1867.
The first athletics club in Wakefield was formed in the year 1867 to promote rugby football, athletics, gymnastics and other sporting pursuits and was called ‘The Young Mens Society’, it was founded and run under the auspices of the Holy Trinity Church, which used to stand in George Street until it’s demolition in 1952.
The club operated until 1880 when, after much discussion about The Young Mens Society devoting too much time to sporting activities to the detriment of their Christian and spiritual duties, the young men broke from the Church and formed their own football club which they called Wakefield Trinity Football Club, in respect to the Church that initially gave birth to the club, and Trinity’s first headquarters were located at Holly Lodge, Wakefield. There was also a second athletic club formed at St. Georges Church Outwood. They went under the name of ‘Outwood Church Athletic Club’ and they also held an annual athletics meet at The Coach Road Ground, Outwood.
At the start of 1894, with more and more of the northern rugby union clubs moving towards the idea of paying their players and with the suspension of Wigan and Salford rugby clubs for “professionalism”, it was decided by the members of the club that it would be imprudent to carry the club on in the same all embracing format and draw the attentions of the athletic ruling bodies to the fact that members of the club were paid rugby players, and so in early 1895 the club was split into two separate self governing bodies, namely Wakefield Trinity Rugby Football Club and Wakefield Trinity Cycling and Athletic Club.
In 1895 came the momentous split from the Rugby Football Union by the northern rugby clubs which eventually led to the formation of the Rugby League and in 1896 a limited company called the Wakefield Athletic Company was formed. Wakefield Trinity Rugby Club which had hitherto played their home matches on fields in the Belle Vue area, somewhere near the Alexander public house, had the site on which the now famous Belle Vue rugby ground stands purchased for them by the new company and Wakefield Trinity Cycling and Athletic Club had a new base.
The first evening sports meeting to be held at the Wakefield Trinity Cycling and Athletic Club headquarters at Belle Vue was held on Wednesday June 24th 1899 with a “fairly large attendance” being noted by the local Wakefield Express newspaper. Spectators paid admission fees of ‘6 pence and one shilling’ and such meetings with athletic entries of up to 600 competitors became a regular occurrence.
NOTABLE ALUMNI
MARTYN BERNARD
Martyn Bernard was a British high jumper. He represented Great Britain in multiple international competitions, earning a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships. Bernard also competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he reached the final with a jump of 2.29 metres. His personal bests include 2.30 metres indoors and 2.29 metres outdoors.
CHARLENE THOMAS
Charlene Thomas is a middle-distance runner who represented Great Britain in the 1500m at the World Championships and competed in various international events.
EMILY FREEMAN
Emily Freeman specialised in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay. She represented Team GB in major international competitions, including the Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, and European Championships. Freeman achieved a personal best of 22.64 seconds in the 200m and was part of the silver-medal-winning 4x100m relay team at the 2006 European Championships.
ALAN SLACK
Probably the most talented all round athlete ever seen in a Wakefield Harriers vest, winning championship medals in Yorkshire, Northern and National Championships at all distances from 50m indoors to 800m, and also in the long, high and triple jump.
In 1983 Alan gained the UK 400m title, and in 1984 was selected for the Olympic 4x400m squad in Los Angeles. He was also in the 4x400m squad for the 1986 Commonwealth games. His 400m pb of 46.03 was set at the Oslo Bislett Games in 1985.
He is the former UK U17 record holder at the Long Jump, and was the club record holder until recently with 7.52m. He still holds our club 800 metres record with 1 min 49.5.
ALAN BELL
Won championship medals in the Yorkshire and Northern Championships at 100m and 200m before moving up to the 400m. This proved to be his best distance, and he won his first international vest in 1978 against East Germany.
Alan subsequently gained many international vests at 400m, and his best year was in 1980. At the UK Championships he won the semi-final in 45.65, which then was 3rd on the UK all-time list, and remains the club record. He then finished second in the final to book his place at the Moscow Olympics. At the Olympics he reached the semi-final stage, but a stomach bug hindered his progress to the final, and meant he couldn't run in the 4x400 relay.
Alan won several championships and gained further international honours over the next couple of years before embarking on his medical career. He still holds club records at 200m with 21.36 and 400m with 45.65.
RONALD WALKER
Wakefield's first international athlete, who after gaining his first major title success in 1929 was set to dominate the local athletics scene for the next twenty years over the 4, 6 and 10 mile distances.
Gained international status in 1935 after being selected for the England team to contest "The International" in Paris. Roland was selected to represent Great Britain at the 1936 Berlin Olympics but was unfortunately not able to compete owing to an injury.
He finally retired from athletics in 1956.
JOHN NEWSOME
A formidable marathon runner who during his long and distinguished racing career won many top honours, including the Yorkshire marathon title no fewer than 7 times! He also won the Northern marathon title before gaining his first Great Britain vest in the Ultava International in Czechoslovakia in 1968. He went on to win this race for 4 consecutive years.
Amongst his many titles were 4 Yorkshire 20 Mile championships and the London to Brighton race.
He also recorded some excellent long distance times on the track, and his marathon best of 2hrs 16min 7 secs set in Prague in 1970 remains the club record.
John remained a stalwart of the club, holding many positions over the years, including the Club President until he passed away in 2016.
CLUB GALLERY
The club and its athletes continue to write new chapters in our history, the images below are just a small selection of people who helped the club become what it is today and continue to support and push the club into the future.
