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Northern Inter Club Championships

Report: Vicki Robinson

With the North of England Inter Club Championships being held on the same weekend as the English Schools' Championships, it was a small Stockport team that travelled to Cleckheaton to contest the Plate match.

The Plate is supposed to be of a lower standard than the Cup match, which was being held at the same venue, but it became apparent that this was not the case, and with 6 teams contesting the Plate, and only 4 in the Cup, a top 3 placing was going to be difficult.

Neil Stevens was Stockport's only winner in the men's competition. Running 11.6 seconds, into a head wind in the 100 metres. Neil then continued his day by contesting the high and long jump as well as both relays. His high jump performance was pretty impressive too placing 2nd on countback with a jump of 1.65 metres.

Bashir Hussain was another busy man, after placing 2nd in the 1,500 metres he barely had time to catch his breath before he was off again in the 5,000 metres, again placing 2nd.

There were several first places for the women. The first of these came from Hayley Dugan in the shot with 9.76 metres. This was quickly followed by Charlie Hesketh equalling her personal best in the high jump with 1.50 metres. Katie Deutsch then followed on the good work taking maximum points in the 100 metres with 13.1 seconds. Kelly Blackman continued her recent good form, recording 26.4 seconds to win the 200 metres. There were then middle distance victories from Claire McMurdoch and Carla Stansfield in the 800 and 1,500 metres.

Also impressive taking 2nd Places were Nicola Barratt with a seasons best in the triple Jump of 9.83 metres, Charlie Hesketh with another leap over 5 metres in the long jump and Vicki Robinson with a season's best of 60.5 seconds in the 400 metres.

Before the relays we were lying in 4th place behind Doncaster, and with only 4 men to contest both relays, we were not feeling hopeful of qualifying for the final. The women were first off in the 4 x 100 metres, and although winning their race, Doncaster were in 2nd place. The men were next up and a gutsy performance saw them finish in 2nd with Doncaster back in 5th place. It was all down to the 4 x 400 metres!

The women's 4 x 400 metres squad were unbeaten this year, and remain that way winning by 9 seconds, with Doncaster back in 4th place. The tired men's team of Neil Stevens, Steve Callister, Jon Walch and Graham Marsland ran bravely finishing in 4th place, just 1 position behind Doncaster.

We then had a nervous wait for the results, but we had done it, we were in 3rd place, just 2 points ahead of Doncaster and will now contest the Plate final on Sunday August 27th.

Thank you to all those athletes and family members who helped out with officiating, scoring us valuable points. A special thanks to 7-year-old Daniel Kay who acted as our track official collecting the results from the finish line, and taking them across to the hut, which he did for the entire day!

Offerton 10K

Tarus AllyThe Thompson Brothers Offerton 10K went off smoothly thanks to good turn-out of marshalls on a humid evening.

Jenny Knass cruised through this hilly 3 lap course in the park to win the ladies' race in 38-44, her 6th victory in the last 2 months. Last year's winner Estelle McGuire came 2nd, Samantha Thomas was 6th, Karen McCrackle 7th, Sharon Glendon 8th and Alison Coulson next taking the Lady V45 prize.

The men's race was won by Salford's Tarus Ally from Wilmslow's Mike Halman, first Harriers home were Alan Pover winning the over-55s prize in 9th place and Andy Oldham 12th.

Northern League - Match 3

4x400 relay

Stockport made a brilliant clean sweep of all 4 relay events

Report: Vicki Robinson

After the 3rd match of the Northern League, Stockport's senior track and field team look almost guaranteed of promotion to Division 2 next season.

On a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon the team returned to Bebbington, and once again placed second to St. Helens Sutton AC.

In the women's team, Carla Stansfield once again achieved a personal best in the 400 metres hurdles with 73.3 seconds in 2nd place. Sprinter Kelly Blackman was in scintillating form, equalling her personal best in the 100 metres with 13.0 seconds, and smashing her 200 metres best with 26.1 seconds, placing 2nd in both events.

Claire McMurdoch found nobody able to challenge her in the 800 metres, and won easily in 2-18 minutes, while training partner Sarah Kaye stepped down in distance to win the B-event in personal best of 2-32 minutes. Sarah's twin sister Leah was also rewarded with a personal best, this time in the 1,500 metres, which she won in 4-52 minutes, with Carla Stansfield further lowering her best to 5-03 minutes. Hopefully Carla's next race will see her dip under the 5 minute barrier.

On the track for the men Ben Styles and Marc Mullin-Browne were both victorious in the one lap sprint, with Marc running a personal best of 51.2 minutes.

Bashir Hussain had a very busy afternoon competing in 3 track events. His best performance coming in the 1,500 metres where he recorded 4-03 minutes to place 2nd on the British M40 rankings for 2006.

In the 200 metres young Rory Evans flew round in a personal best of 22.8 seconds to win the A-race.

In the field Marie Cosgrove recorded personal bests in both the discus and Javelin with 16.99 metres and 14.70 metres respectively, while Hayley Dugan took her usual victory in the shot putt with 9.90 metres.

Charlie Hesketh took victory in the long jump, winning by half a metre with 4.99 metres, despite carrying a foot injury, her brother Chris Hesketh showed a promising return to the triple jump, placing 3rd with 11.59 metres, with Scott Boothby only 6cm behind winning the B-event.

The team ended the day brilliantly, placing 1st in all 4 relays.

Next Sunday sees the team contesting the Northern Inter Club Champs at Cleckheaton. The final match in the North of England League is on Sunday August 6th at Warrington. Anybody interested in competing should see Alison Hesketh or Dean Loxam.

Caffeine research questionnaire

Nick Wojek, a postgraduate student at Liverpool John Moores University is conducting research into the use of caffeine in sport and would like help from athletes of any standard, details below.

In January 2004, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) removed caffeine from its Prohibited List and placed it onto a Monitoring Programme. Under this programme, athletes can consume caffeine without restriction and without the possibility of a ban. The research team at Liverpool John Moores University would be most grateful if you could take five to ten minutes to answer our online questionnaire about caffeine consumption amongst athletes by following the website link below:

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