Weather helps set a fast pace
THE pace was fast and furious at a bone dry Wythenshawe park for the running of the first of the seasonal Manchester and district cross country leagues and Stockport’s senior female team showed grit and determination in their event with four finishers in the top ten which no other club could match.
But Trafford A.C. were still hard on the home team’s heals with only three points separating the situation in the final results.
Leeds undergraduate Mollie Williams got the ball rolling for team Stockport with a fine 6th finish position whilst not far behind in 8th, 9th and 10th were Louise Rudd, Katie Whiteoak and Hannah Griffiths respectively which sealed a sweet team victory with evergreen veteran Rudd using the experience as a training outing for the British and Irish Masters cross country championships having received an England call up to compete at Tolcross park, Glasgow next month.
Over 380 competitors took part in the men’s race.
Leading them all home to fine a victory was Stockport’s Jack Morris who took the gold honours and just two places behind in 3rd was club mate Jack (Jaybird) Martin but unfortunately the local team did not have enough depth to win the group prize as well which went to Sale Harriers, with 2nd place going to Trafford A.C. and team Stockport having to content itself with third but there are four more league matches to come and all to play for.
Stockport’s junior ladies took the winning team spoils with fine running by Hannah Richardson (5th), Heather Corden (6th) and Emilia Gajda 12th and further down the age scale.
In the under 13s department both Stockport’s boys and girls teams excelled themselves with silver team positions consisting of Thomas Manton (5th), Cameron Murdoch (10th) and Henry Pickard (11th) for the boys and in the girls event the finishing team consisted of Esther Hulley (5th), Daisy Keigher (7th) and Rebecca Cox (22nd).
Also in the Wythenshawe cross country race was super vet Rob Taylor who won the over 65s category in 45:54 leaving a gap of nearly three minutes to second placed David Telford of Altrincham A.C. (49:49) and Stockport’s Alexis Dinsmor topped the equivalent ladies event to stop the clock in 46:24.
Both athletes are equally at home on road, trail, fell and cross country and should spearhead their age group categories for the rest of the league season.
Stockport’s Jenny Knass got back below the three hour mark in the TCS International Amsterdam marathon finishing in a fine 397th position out of 12,182 finishers to record a time of 2:57:49 for the 26+ mile course which made her 12th lady out of 1,067 female competitors
It will have made up for her slight disappointment at London earlier in the year when she posted a time of 3:00:42.
At a shorter distance but still 10 miles, entries are now open for the annual Hoka One One 10 mile road race which starts from the new clubhouse at Woodbank athletics stadium on Sunday 4th December with an increase to a race limit of 1500 competitors.
The event will also incorporate the North of England 10 mile championships, further details can be found at the dedicated website of www. stk10.co.uk
Users of Woodbank athletic stadium may care to note that the facility reopens after buildings refurbishment for training from Tuesday evening the 1st of November with the official re-launch being the following Saturday the 5th.