Harriers in stride for cross-country

Te Puke Harriers are two months into their cross country season.

The first two Saturdays were pack runs with everyone running in their ability groups, on farmland in the Te Puke area.

The third Saturday we ran the opening of the Te Ara Kahikatea walkway and some of our members made a race out of it. It was a 4km event and 10-year-old Baylee Hennell was first female in. Alanah Eru was hot on her heels.

The following week we were off to Bellamy’s Clark Rd property and it was rather a wet one. Ten braved the rain and the scones and jam went down well afterwards.

The following Saturday we were off to Rotoehu with reasonable weather and more afternoon tea.

May 12 was a combined outing with Tauranga Ramblers at Summer Hill in Welcome Bay for a run through the paddocks to Pa¯pa¯moa Hills and back.

A run up Otanewainuku saw newcomer Hadley Fowler put in a fast run along with Decklan and Sean.

The final weekend of May saw the club enter in the Tauranga Ramblers’ open day, which attracts clubs from across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

Sean by de Ley ran fourth in the under-15 boys’ grade and Alanah fourth in the under-13 girls’.

Jamie Rosbourgh had to ease up because of an injury.

Jazmine Buchanan, 10, took off like a rocket and paid the price for that, but came back and had a very strong finish.

Matt Lyford had a really good day. He has just turned 10 and his race was a big one with 58 starters. He finished 13th.

Matt attends some training sessions, is a relaxed person and has got bags of potential.