News

Mud, glorious mud!

Pontefract race course was the venue for the Northern Cross Country Championships. After a considerable amount of rain the going was soft to very soft in places more suitable to rally cross than cross country running! The first Harrier across the course was Issie Starkey who finished in 53^rd place in the U17 womens race. Next was the U13 girls with Eliza Withers completing the course in 187^th place. The U17 boys were represented by Luke Hack (84^th), Aaron Auton (107^th) who is starting to show some form and had a very encouraging run, James Greer (108^th) and Ryan Canizo (120^th) who got swallowed up by the mud but still finished the race much to his credit! George Veitch and Lewis Moore performed extremely well in a very competitive U13 mens race with George in 87^th and Lewis in 170^th. A hotly fought U15 girls ended with less than 2 minutes separating the top 50, with Laura Kirkham in 45^th and Vanessa Roper in 131st. In the U15 boys Harry Robson had a storming run in 41^st place and only 30 seconds outside the top 10. Fergus Roberts on his return to club colours this season had a great run to place just outside the top ten in 11^th place in the Junior mens race. By this stage the course was fit for pigs rather than athletes but Jo Adams found the conditions to her liking with a pleasing run in 27^th, the ever smiling Jackie Keavney in 95^th, the ever improving Pauline Whittaker in 235th, Fiona Wilson in 286^th and Michelle Sprent in 307th. The men were the last to cross the start line but the course was more akin to bog snorkelling or the Somme by this stage. Rob Scott mastered the conditions to come home in 148^th, Ken Harker had a good run in 211^th, Mark Flannery in 296^th, Carl Jones in 308^th, Mark Crawford (345^th),  Simon Withers and Andy Everard in 557^th and 572^nd, respectively.

On Saturdays parkrun at Darlington, Michelle Nolan was 4^th overall and 1^st lady in 18:20 and Ronnie Corbett acting as a pace maker was 34^th.  Shona Fletcher ran at a very slippy Albert Park parkrun and was the 1^st lady and 10^th overall in a new pb of 18:04.