Davies fancied for Qatar ultra
GREATER distances than the traditional 26+ miles of the marathon are now in the sights of Stockport Harriers’ international Andrew Davies who recently competed in the Great North run.
He finished in 14th position in a creditable 1:06:47. However, Davies has bigger fish to fry in far off and much hotter climbs in Qatar.
He now goes in the 50 kilometres event in Dagu on November 11th and is highly tipped for a good finish in the company of many international ultra athletes.
The event has been organised as the annual championships of the International Association of Ultra Runners and he will be able to use this as a stepping stone to ultra events which can be as long as 100 kilometres or even 24 hours of running which has been undertaken by the Harriers’ membership secretary Jerzy Matuszewski for many years now.
At a considerably shorter distance, undergraduate Mollie Williams, who is studying for a sports degree at Leeds Beckett University, has retained her university under 20s women’s 1500 metres title for the second year running.
That will hopefully translate into prospective good finishes for the imminent cross country season. Williams was one of the three stars of the show in winning the 2016 under 20s team title at the National Cross Country Championships at Alton Towers earlier in the year.
The pace was fast and furious for the annual running of the Menzis 4 miles of Groningen starting from Haren in the Netherlands with Stockport’s Ross Millington using it as a sharpener for future events during the winter period.
It was a one/two for Ethiopian athletes Tamirat Tola (17:38) and Yigrem Demelash (17:39) but Millington gave a good account of himself to finish in eightth spot (18:10).
He was just pipped to the post by fellow compatriot Andy Vernon of Aldershot, Farnham and district, finishing just two seconds ahead in 18:08 but there are yet more races taking place in Holland for local Harriers and associates.
At least twelve veteran athletes will be participating in the 32nd annual October tour in the Bertusloop 5 and 10 kilometre trail events which take place in Delft, South Holland this coming Sunday.
Nearer to home, the annual Harriers’ race series will soon be drawing to a close with just two events remaining being the Bartletts Farndon 10 kilometre road event and finally the Langley seven mile event near Macclesfield on November 1st.