Belbeck starts indoor season in style with double delight in Cardiff
CHELTENHAM Harrier Oliver Belbeck enjoyed a brilliant start to his indoor season at the South West Indoor Championships in Cardiff.
Under-15 athlete Belbeck added 63cm to his shot put PB to take silver with a throw of 10.10m and then equalled his 300m PB with a run of 40.98 for a gold medal.
The senior men and women’s endurance teams headed to Northampton and Stratford upon Avon for the second round in the Birmingham and Midland Women’s Cross country Leagues.
Rachel See led the women home with a strong run on a tough hilly course to finish in 17th, equalling her highest position in the league.
Petra Vymetalova was 55th and 11th master, while Holly Derrick made her debut with 89th and Nicola Whiteman and Lucy Goode ran well for 95th and 157th respectively.
In Northampton, Chris Wagstaff was in flying form , bettering his first round position by 13 places, to finish 37th against high quality opposition.
Only 38 seconds then separated the next five Harriers, led by Roger Mullins in 115th, a huge improvement on his first round performance of 191st while Harrison Miles and George Sheppard battled all the way to the line and earned 124th and 125th places.
In 129th was Andy Gore with Martin Foster in 132nd both also improving massively on his first round placing.
Making his debut was Rhys Pippard with a solid run for 155th, while Kevin Spillman and Michael Ede were 185th and 205th respectively.
At the Liverpool Cross Challenge and European Cross Country Championships Trials, Kaitlyn Sheppard competed in the combined Under-17 and Under-20 race and having enjoyed a brilliant start to the season, she hung on for a superb 16th place (12th Under20) against international standard competition, while in the Senior Women’s 8km race Rachel See enjoyed testing herself against high quality opposition, finishing 94th.
The 2021 Gloucestershire Road Race Series saw three Harriers take home medals.
Foster took a silver in the M40 category after a consistently strong year. Foster was second in the Bourton 1 mile, first in the Cranham Chase and second in the Bugatti 10k.
After a fourth place in the Bourton 1 mile, Cranham Chase and Guy Fawkes 5, a third place in the Bugatti 10k and second in the Angels 10k it was a silver for Paul Barnes in the M60 category.
Martin Ford’s wins in the Bugatti 10k, Angels 10k and Guy Fawkes 5 also earned him a silver too.