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National Cross Country Championships

Under-13s at Sunderland

The under-13 girls finished an impressive 12th in the National Cross Country Championships at Herrington Park, Sunderland

Report: Pete Torrence

A number of Stockport Harriers' young athletes made the trip up to Herrington Park, Sunderland to compete in the English Cross Country Championships against clubs from all over the country. On a very windy day the course was extremely undulating and had many muddy sections yet proved to be a very fast course.

Both under-13s races were run over a 3km course and proved to be the best races of the day for the Harriers with both teams scoring well in the team competition.

The girls' race saw a very fast pace set right from the start with all the Harriers up in the top half of the field, Amie Hughes making the best start of the Stockport girls to come home in 57th, followed by Hannah Coulson 85th, Nicola Berry 102nd, Imogen Nutter 139th, Aimee Aikin 139th, Danielle Leith 202nd and Samantha Wilson 224th.

The team race saw the girls finish 12th in out of 36 teams behind local rivals East Cheshire Harriers who took first place.

In the boys' race the Harriers again showed the team spirit in the club to come out on the big occasions with great runs from Richard Hindley and Jack Nixon in 24th and 41st position followed by Sam Bowden 135th and Jamie Henderson 174th to take the team to 15th out of the 32 teams who finished the race.

National Cross Country results
Under-13 Girls - 12th
57 A Hughes 12:29
85 H Coulson 12:48
102 N Berry 12:56
136 I Nutter 13:15
139 A Aikin13:16
203 D Leith 13:52
224 S Wilson 14:16
Under-13 Boys - 15th
23 R Hindley 11:07
41 J Nixon 11:21
135 S Bowden 12:10
174 J Henderson 12:38
Under-15 Girls
112 M Wiblin 19:48
158 A Whewell 20:34
Under-15 Boys
83 M Logue 16:41
126 N Ludlain 17:21
204 H Long 18:24
Under-17 Girls
24 L Kay 19:13
132 J Bauer 23:19
Under-17 Boys
39 M Cooke 22:25
166 P Nixon 26:10
Junior Women
51 C McMurdock 20:09
58 C Stansfield 20:31
Junior Men
46 A Nixon 35:03

Trafford 10k

Report: Phil McCann

Hodd Todd

Helen Todd was 1st V50, breaking her own club V50 record

Stockport Ladies again moved up another notch both in performances and athletics rankings. On a slightly windy day the Trafford 10k was full to capacity and with some leaving it to the last minute missed out on an entry. Those who did manage it were Jenny Knass looking to get some speed work in after her long runs aimed at the London Marathon. Sarah Lomas having just joined the Club has been working hard on the track as well as training for her first London Marathon. Amber Whewell was running her first 10k as a junior. Vicky Buckley, Helen Todd and myself also made the entry list.

Jenny Knass worked hard from start to finish even though she had a stitch for a majority of it. She finished 6th lady with a personal best of 37-52 breaking the 38 minute barrier for the first time. Likewise Sarah Lomas on only her 2nd 10k, her previous being Great Manchester Run (43-42) last year, ran a huge personal best of 39-32 and also made the rankings.

Amber Whewell ran superbly to break the Club's record for a junior 10k running 43-06, a lot to come from her in the future. Vicky Buckley ran solidly to record 47-03 with Helen Todd finishing close behind with 47-06 to take the 1st V50 prize, breaking her own club V50 record by nearly a minute.

Phil McCann

The ladies finished 3rd team with Jenny, Sarah and Amber on 29 points. 1st team was St. Helens 22 points, Sale with 25 points it was that close.

Finally myself having only just managed an entry and aiming for around 55 minute with no training, running it tactically right to finish in 52 min, I practiced what I preached!

Trafford 10k results
1 Peter Riley 29.33
16 Mike Shaw V40 1st 33:52
47 James Corden 36:58
63 Jenny Knass L 6th 37:52
65 Adrian Arbour 37:57
77 Neil Thompson 38:32
78 John Harvey 38:43
86 Sarah Lomas L 8th 39:37
106 Sean Whewell V40 16th 41:07
121 Steve Matkin V45 19th 42:25
135 Amber Whewell L18 1st 43:06
157 John Delany V60 2nd 44:40
182 Victoria Buckley L40 9th 47:03
184 Helen Todd L50 1st 47:05
186 Chris Bryans V70 1st 47:07
200 Steven Johnson V45 28th 48:00
257 Phil McCann V50 20th 52:58
301 Cathy Thompson L40 20th 56:11
320 Alison Coulson L45 16th 58:23

St Anne's 10 miler

Elsewhere Toni McIntosh decided to miss the Trafford 10k and run the St. Anne's 10 miler instead. Conditions were atrocious with a force gale on the sea front. Everybody was finding it tough however Toni battled hard with 4 other ladies to come out on top. Her time of 1-06-41 was a lot slower than she wanted due to the conditions but 1st place made up for it.

Emma Calderbank 1-06-47, Sarah Ridehalgh 1-06-51, Faye Banks 1-07-00 were battling with Toni to show what a hard race it was. Other Stockport ladies at the race battling it out were Victoria Healey 1-33-37, Heather Cairns 1-41-03 and Susan Campbell 1-51-33

Huddersfield 10k

Another new lady to join the club is triathlete Rachel Shepherd and has already made her mark with a personal best at the Garstang 10k in January with 40-14. This the Huddersfield 10k race last week she selected to see how her endurance speed would be. Rachel found it very hilly but recorded a time of 42-20 to place 2nd lady, only 70 seconds behind the winner. Afterwards said she had learnt a lot and like Sarah will aim to break that 40 minute barrier very soon. It's about the right preparation and a lot of our ladies are coming to terms with that.

Finally Stockport ladies Toni, Jenny Knass, Jenny Murray, Sarah, Maryte and the two Vicky's are now looking for good performances at Wilmslow 1/2m in 3 weeks time, while Sharon, Samantha, Karen, Alice and Jenny Hopes will be at Liverpool 1/2m on the same day, we will watch with interest.

Jess selected for World Cross Country

Jess Coulson

Jess Coulson finished 4th in the Under-20s Inter Counties race to be part of the six strong world junior team. More race pictures at Mick Hall Photos

Jess Coulson has been selected to run at this year's World Cross Country Championships in Kenya.

A historic day for Jess and Stockport Harriers to have 2 athletes at a World Championships as she joins fellow Harrier Steve Vernon who won selection earlier this month.

Jess, still an under-17, was 4th in the Inter Counties under-20 women's race at Nottingham on Saturday and will be part of a six strong women's team who back in December won the team gold at the European Cross Country Championships.

Other Harriers representing Greater Manchester in the Inter Counties Championships were; Andy Nixon 24th in the under-20s, Richard Hindley 40th in the under-13s, Michelle Wiblin 63rd in the under-15s and Leah Kay 25th in the under-17s.

Manchester Area Cross Country League

Report: Pete Torrence

Daniel Lawton

Daniel Lawton took the individual honours while the under-11s were overall team winners

Stockport Harriers' under-11s had a long, hard weekend when they all competed on both Saturday and Sunday in the Schools' League and Manchester League events.

Sunday's last of the Manchester Area Cross Country League races was held at Woodbank Park where the teams' scores from the previous matches were very close with the girls' team one point ahead of Sale Harriers and two points ahead of Manchester Harriers, while the boys' team were equal on points with Warrington AC.

On the day the two Stockport teams turned out in force taking the honours in both team races and won the overall league team prizes.

In the girls' race Olivia Wild, who has been unbeaten in the school races, had a outstanding race to take the individual title from Chelsea Jarvis of St. Helens while just behind Alice Bowden took 3rd spot backed up by Aimee Aikin in 8th, Bethany Donnelly running her first race for the club in 9th and Emma O'Connell 19th who turned out despite a heavy cold to make up the team.

Not to be out done, the boys' team came out with every one running to form, again there was another outstanding run by Daniel Lawton who has been improving all the time to take the individual honours from Warrington's Liam Barthem and supported by Max Cole in 3rd, Jack Donnelly 7th, William Garner 8th, Tom Donnelly 12th and James Bartley 13th.

Ladies finish with a flurry

Report: Phil McCann

The final Manchester League Cross Country event of the 2006/2007 season at Woodbank park saw Stockport ladies finish with a flurry.

The turn-out of runners from other clubs was low, it seemed strange with many individual and team places up for grabs. However those who ran were not to be disappointed with a 2-lap true cross country course and perfect weather.

Estelle McGuire and Toni McIntosh were in the leading pack from the gun followed by Jane Mellor and Vicky Barrett. Meanwhile Karen McCrackle was moving up through the field with Maryte Moore and Debra McCann battling together.

New girl Lois without spikes was enjoying the experience more to come from her in the future. Alexis Dinsmoor and Marie Kay were as always there and were running well. Janet Booker was running well and in with a chance of being in the prizes for the Vet 50 Category. This she managed finishing 2nd Vet 50 overall.

Finally Maureen Wilkins twisted her ankle in the first half of the race and struggled all the way round to make sure she completed her final event.

The second half of the race saw everybody as they were on the first lap Estelle finished in 8th place with Toni in 10th this gave her an overall series position of 4th place. In the Team events the Seniors who were in joint 3rd place with Trafford at the start of the day finished just ahead to get the Bronze medals.

The Vets too were not to be out done and were having a terrific day lying in 4th place at the start they leap-frogged themselves into silver medal position. Once again with may ladies spreading themselves out at other events and some with injuries it shows what strength we have in depth.

Alexandra Park 5k Manchester

The week before the XC saw Toni McIntosh run her 2nd event here as this event is held every month. Once again Toni was using this as a long training run she ran to the event 4 miles and ran back afterwards.That did not hamper her performance too much she was 30 seconds slower than last time but again enough to win the ladies' event! Toni looks in good shape and is finding a new focus to her running.

Nick Beer Llandudno 10k

This event on the same day as the XC saw Joanna Bleakley run this event even though she has been struggling with a knee problem. However she came away a little pleased that her fitness was still there to finish 7th lady in a time of 44-40. Next week Joanna will be having a scan on the knee to see what the problem is and hopefully she will be back on the mend and into her running we wish her a speedy recovery.

Manchester Area Cross Country League - Match 5
Under-11 Female
1 OLIVIA WILD 9:40
3 ALICE BOWDEN 10:05
8 AIMEE AIKIN 10:45
9 BETHANY DONNELLY 10:50
19 EMMA O'CONNELL 11:49
Under-13 Female
2 AMIE HUGHES 10:08
6 HANNAH COULSON 10:33
17 NICOLA BERRY 11:32
22 SARAH TIPPING 12:10
Under-15 Female
1 MICHELLE WIBLIN 13:32
13 AMBER WHEWELL 15:13
Under-17 Female
2 LEAH KAY 18:48
3 SARAH KAY 19:52
8 JENNIFER BAUER 22:31
9 RUTH JENYON 22:49
Under-20 Female
1 CARLA STANSFIELD 24:40
2 CLAIRE McMURDOCK 25:46
Senior Female
10 TONI  McINTOSH 27:28
24 KAREN McCRACKLE 30:12
43 MARIE KAY 33:08
8 ESTELLE McGUIRE FV35 2 27:06
30 DEBRA McCANN FV35 4 31:36
19 JANE MELLOR FV40 5 29:26
21 VICKI BARRATT FV40 7 29:40
54 MAUREEN WILKINS FV40 14 45:16
29 MARYTE MOORE FV45 4 31:28
46 JANET BOOKER FV50 3 34:34
32 ALEXIS DINSMOR FV55 1 31:50
Under-11 Male
1 DANIEL LAWTON 9:52
3 MAX COLE 10:11
7 JACK DONNELLY 11:10
8 WILLIAM GARNER 11:11
12 TOMMY DONNELLY 11:46
13 JAMES BARTLEY 11:48
Under-13 Male
1 RICHARD HINDLEY 12:20
5 JACK NIXON 12:57
11 SAM BOWDEN 13:52
14 JAMIE HENDERSON 14:22
Under-15 Male
2 MICHAEL LOGUE 17:06
6 HARRY LONG 18:12
8 NATHAN LUDLAIN 18:22
14 JACK MORRIS 19:46
Under-17 Male
2 MICHAEL COOKE 19:20
7 STUART CAMERON 21:29
8 PHILLIP NIXON 22:25
Senior Male
24 ANDREW PAVEY 34:50
42 BILL SHONE 36:26
38 KEVAN GARNER MV40 8 36:04
74 HUW MORRIS MV40 21 39:55
37 STEVE HAYLOCK MV45 5 35:58
60 TIM HARGREAVES MV45 11 38:44
80 PETER NIXON MV45 13 40:56
111 ROBERT TAYLOR MV55 5 48:10
115 JIM HERRON MV55 7 50:23
118 IAN BERRY MV60 8 56:21
108 CHRIS BRYANS MV65 5 46:57

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