Clubs’ delegations turn on the Midlands magic
A TWENTY-STRONG Harborough AC delegation was despatched to the Midlands Region Cross-Country Championships at Nottingham and the town was represented in no fewer than six of the day’s events.
In the under-20 men’s event, Jake Watson took a combative 40th spot, with a clocking of 28mins 56secs. His younger siblings – twins Niamh and Mollie – began their respective assault, in the under-13 bracket. Niamh edged out her sister with a time of 12:47 for the 3km course, against Mollie’s 13:31 (for 53rd and 75th spots).
In the under-20 women, and Sarah Ward and Emily Taylor made short-shrift of the 5km route, with the latter taking 25th (in 22:19), and the former securing 36th (24:32). Also garnering a position in the top 25 was Martha Clapp – who equalled Taylor’s placing – in the under- 15 girls’ 4km contest, clocking 16:24 in a field of over 100.
First home for the women was Hannah Eveleigh, reinforcing her recent Inter-Counties selection with a fluid run, and 33rd place in a time of 31:59. Nicola James broke the 40-minute mark to take 116th (39:14). Ensuring an overall team place of 18th were the duo of Lianne Brooks (130th, 41:01) and Marise Taylor (159th, 46:49).
The men’s race had the largest entry at 412 and in 58th place, it was the elegant gait of Sean Fenwick that showed first for HAC, in 41:25. Also returning top-half finishes were Will Clapp (120th, 44:43), Martin Gore (136th, 45:23) and Adam Brooks (199th, 47:59). The pair of Michael Burke and Mark Cherry appear to have thoroughly enjoyed their debut season, and flourished with 214th and 236th places (48:42, and 49:30). Concluding the Harborough contingent’s participation on the day was Dave Waddington, who clocked 51:31 (for 272nd) to help cement 20th place in the team competition.
Droitwich Spa played host to the Masters version of the Midland Championships. Continuing their fruitful pedigrees, both Yvonne Scarrott and Karen Brooks of Harborough had excellent runs, with, respectively, seventh in the Vet45 Category (29:09) and fifth in the Vet50s (29:26) over the 6km course.
A return to the roads came in the guise of the 2012 Leicester Winter Road Running League. The five-race series kicked off with the Barrow ‘6’.
Featuring strongly among the 500-plus entry were 13 from HAC – with three personal bests auguring well. Scarrott and Brooks have plainly traversed from mud to tarmac successfully, placing tenth and 24th in the women’s race. PBs from Jackie King and Lin Farrow saw them taking 62nd and 82nd, while Ruth Bingham (91st), Jo Johnston (95th) and Linda Lawton (118th) all began their campaigns. Amid their male counterparts, Ady King ran a lifetime best for the distance, securing 43rd in the process. Exactly 100 places back, Richard Bufton suggested that he has wintered well, while Rick Brown came 233rd. Chris Loake (245th) and Nick Johnston (249th) enjoyed places inside the top-250, and Ray Lack confirmed his injury and illness travails lie firmly in his wake, taking 364th position.
Fleckney and Kibworth AC provided two outstanding results in the Midlands Cross-Country Championships.
In the under-17 men’s race Jack Williams stepped up significantly from his most recent outing in the county championships to take 32nd spot in a time of 21:35 and in so doing posted fourth spot among the Leicestershire qualified athletes. In the women’s race Lorna Muskett gave one of her best performances in recent times with a fine 74th place crossing the line in 35:21 and seventh Leicetsershire finisher in the field.
The efforts of both Muskett and Williams look sure to rubber stamp their inclusion in the Leicestershire team for the forthcoming Inter Counties Championships.
In the Barrow 6 women’s section, there was some disappointment as for the first time since Fleckney and Kibworth entered the league five years ago, the club failed to field a scoring team of four. It was left to the plucky and willing trio of Helen Newberry, Bernadette Owen and Lisa Stone to do what they could to negate the inevitable points reversal. Newberry is in a rich vein of form and in this her third season she showed that her current training regime for the London Marathon is not hindering her progression as she posted an excellent finish of 17th in a time of 42:45. Owen underlined her consistency with 45:34 and 41st place. Seasonal debutant Stone closed the women’s result out with 59th place and a finish time of 47:06.
There was a hearty response from a depleted men’s line-up. Jamie Strange recorded 44th place in 35:05 after a recent injury lay-off. There was then a nip and tuck effort by Duncan Campbell and Noel Houlihan with Campbell prevailing in 36:23 for 64th place and Houlihan finishing in close order, his 74th spot achieved in 36:50. Fellow Masters runners Mike Turner and Dave Wheeler battled up Capstick Hill together with Turner 147th in 40:26 and Wheeler 152nd in 40:43.
There was a excellent performance by the club’s next finisher Luke St Clair, who only made his league debut in the final event of the 2011 season and has started his first full year of racing by taking the sixth scoring place for the club when he crossed the line in 45:20 for 262nd place. With vital league points still to be gained every clubmate was cheered in as Willem Veldhuzen, Jon Stone and Andy Bailey rounded off the day’s results all with battling efforts. Veldhuzen – 313rd in 47:59 – was narrowly ahead of Stone (320th in 48:18) but there was much celebration for the reliable Masters 55 Bailey, who shattered his PB for the distance in a time of 56:00 for 372nd spot.
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Weather for Harborough
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
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