National 12 Stage Road Relay championship, Sutton Park
Leeds City retained their title in the National 12 stage road relay championship at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, on Saturday. Northern champions Leeds had a winning margin of 1 minute 21 seconds over Midlands champions Notts AC with Southern winners Belgrave third.
Leeds were given a great start by Leeds University medical student Adam Grice (26:22) who finished second on the opening long stage behind Andi Jones (Salford). Martin Roscoe (14:48) dropped two places and Martin Hilton (27:48) slipped to fifth but the team were handily placed as Birchfield, running their strongest runners in the first half, led the field.
Joe Townsend, a junior returning to action after a troublesome knee injury has seen him sidelined for much of the winter, had a superb run on stage four taking Leeds to third place with a time of 14:58, and this position was held by Simon Deakin (26:42) and Mike Burrett (15:11).
Northern cross country champion Dave Webb (26:01) set about the leaders and finished in the lead with a good cushion over Notts AC.
James Wilkinson (15:01), James Walsh (26:44), and Martin Gostling (14:47), another returning after injury, kept the Leeds colours to the front with Newham and Essex Beagles looking the biggest threat at this stage.
Alan Buckley (26:45) and anchor man Darran Bilton went well clear on the final two stages with Newham fading badly as Notts and Belgrave came through for silver and bronze.
Leeds, were almost two minutes faster than last year with four newcomers compared with last year’s squad.
The Leeds second team finished 23rd in a field of 60 and were first B team.
Aldershot won a close race against Northern champions Chester le Street in the women’s six stage relay. A below strength Hallamshire team did well to finish tenth.
Results
Men’s 12 stage
1 Leeds City 4:09:40 (A Grice 26:22, M Roscoe 14:48, M Hilton 27:48, J Townsend 14:58, S Deakin 26:42, M Burrett 15:11, D Webb 26:01, J Wilkinson 15:01, J Walsh 26:44, M Gostling 14:47, A Buckley 26:45, D Bilton 14:33); 2 Notts AC 4:11:01; 3 Belgrave 4:12:16; 4 Newham and Essex 4:12:16; 23 Leeds City B 4:36:59; 36 Rotherham 4:47:48; 46 York Acorn 4:55:36
Fastest long stage: J Ndayesenga (Birchfield) 25:33
Fastest short stage: A Baddeley (Harrow) 13:39
Women’s six stage
1 Aldershot 1:41:48; 2 Chester le Street 1:41:52; 3 Winchester 1:44:45; 10 Hallamshire 1:48:04 (J Russell 17:04, L Wild 18:57, K VanHee 19:14, Z Wray 18:19, N Squires 17:48, L Such 17:22); 18 Rotherham 1:53:07
Fastest: J Potter (Charnwood) 16:06
Foreign athletes found it tough going in the Three Peaks race at Horton in Ribblesdale on Saturday. Only third placed Mitja Kosovelj (Slovenia) made any real impression in the race which incorporated the World Mountain Running Championship.
Victory went to Jethro Lennox from the Scottish club Shettlestone who finished 37 seconds clear of Thomas Owens (Mercia FRC). Lennox took the lead on the descent from Whernside and never looked in danger although Owens was closing fast at the finish.
Three times winner Rob Jebb finished fourth this time (2:59:13) whilst Pudsey and Bramley’s Rob Hope was just one place behind, improving steadily throughout. There was a fine effort from Carl Gray (Calder Valley Fell Runners) who moved through relentlessly from 27th at the top of Pen-y-ghent to seventh at the finish.
Course record holder Andy Peace (Bingley) ran well for 10th and last year’s runner up John Heneghan (Pudsey and Bramley) finished 12th in the field of 754. Conditions were heavy and times were well down on the record in the men’s race but there was a superb record breaking run in the women’s section where the foreign athletes did well. Anna Pichrtova (Czech Republic) opened up a six minute gap over Scotland’s Angela Mudge to come home in 3:14:43, taking some two minutes off the long standing course record held by Sarah Rowell (Pudsey and Bramley).
Bingley’s Sharon Taylor ran well to take fifth place (3:34:15) and Helen Fines (Calder Valley Fell Runners) finished eighth.
Results
Men
1 J Lennox (Shettleston/UK) 2:53:39; 2 T Owens (Mercia/UK) 2:54:16; 3 M Kosovelj (Czech) 2:57:36; 4 R Jebb (Bingley/UK) 2:59:13; 5 R Hope (Pudsey and Bramley/UK) 2:59:51; 6 R Lightfoot (Elenborough/UK) 3:00:25; 7 C Gray (Calder Valley FR/UK) 3:01:24); 8 B Burns (Salford/Switzerland) 3:02:44; 9 J Symonds (Kendal) 3:03:36; 10 A Peace (Bingley) 3:04:47; 11 J Davies (Borrowdale) 3:05:03; 12 J Heneghan (Pudsey and Bramley) 3:05:30
Team: Pudsey and Bramley
Women
1 A Pichrtova (Czech) 3:14:43; 2 A Mudge (Cartheny/UK) 3:20:53; 3 A Bateup (Australia) 3:25:33; 4 A Frost (New Zealand) 3:26:13; 5 S Taylor (Bing/UK) 3:34:15; 6 E Rukhlyada (Russia) 3:34:35; 7 E Danilova (Russia) 3:35:36; 8 H Fines (Calder Valley FR/UK) 3:38:42
Team: Russia
Yorkshire Sportshall Athletics Festival - English Institute of Sport
Sheffield 30 th March 2008
Following successful eliminator matches, competitions and trials being held across the region the regional finals saw under 11’s teams from across the region gather at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield to compete in the regional final. The match at Sheffield featured 12 teams from Yorkshire and Humberside all keen and raring to go. Many teams had spent weeks training following selection for the finals and everyone was keen to finish as champions. Passing through the events the competition looked very evenly spread with all teams picking up wins on the track and on the field events.
Ultimately Sheffield was the winners in the girl’s event whilst Leeds claimed the boy’s title but the highlight of the day was seeing so many youngsters participating it what was for many there first really experience of athletics competition. The is only one event now left in the sportshall calendar where North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire will represent the region in the UK Finals at the NEC in Birmingham on 12th April.
U11’s Girls Team Result
1 Sheffield 413
2 Leeds 407
3 Kirklees 396
4 Calderdale 328
5 Rotherham 324
6 Selby 322
7 City of Bradford 315
8 South Humberside 254
9 Harrogate 238
10 Hull & East Riding 235
11 York 212
12 Doncaster Darts 204
U11’s Boys Results
1 Leeds 407
2 City of Bradford 395
3 Sheffield 380
4 Rotherham 365
5 Calderdale 341
6 Selby 337
7 Kirklees 321
8 York 282
9 Harrogate 243
10 Hull & East Riding 239
11 Doncaster Darts 173
12 South Humberside 165
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