Stockport make the most of home comforts
TEAM Stockport continues to fire on all cylinders with regards the Youth development track and field league upper age group.
They played their home advantage at Woodbank Park with much aplomb, putting no less than 135 points between themselves and second placed rivals Lancaster and Morecambe AC in accomplishing a score of 609 to Lancaster’s 2nd team place of 474 points.
Field athlete Euan Benson took substantial wins in no less than three events in the under 20s section – the hammer (19:76), javelin throw (29:25) and the discus (18:88). Only in the shot put did he have to play second fiddle to Jonathan Causer of Sutton St Helens who took the gold in 11:16 metres to Benson’s second placed effort of 8:97, but he was by far the most successful male field athlete during the afternoon’s proceedings.
In the under 17s department, Matthew Connor showed off his versatility by taking the “A” string javelin with ease in a splendid 34:32 metres effort and then went on to help his team mates in both the 4 x 100 metres relays to finish in the bronze medal position.
They then went two better to take the gold medal spot in the longer 4 x 400 metres to wrap up the afternoon’s proceedings for the boys.
For the girls, Amy Jackson emulated Euan Benson’s efforts by going through the field card with three straight “A” wins for the under 20’s age group in the long jump (4:73), triple jump (10:66) and javelin throw (22:88) and then went one better than Benson by participating in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 metre relay events and helped to secure winning points in both events for Team Stockport.
There was also much success in the longer distances with under 20s wins for Katy Whiteoak (“A” - 1,500 metres – 4:45:4), Emily Gajda (“B” – 1,500 metres – 5:35:5) and Hannah Richardson completed the set by taking the “A” 3,000 metres event finishing in an impressive time of 10:40:7.
The afternoon wrapped up well with further successes on the field with Emily Jarad and Catherine Giller making it a double first in the “A” and “B” triple jump respectively and Bethan Kelly taking top spot in the “A” Discus and Holly Benson likewise in the “B” event of which all four girls achieved AAA standards for their efforts towards team victory for the host club.
The seasonal half way stage of the competition has now been reached with Team Stockport topping both the junior and senior levels of the Youth development league.
To the roads and to the Simply Health Great Manchester run and Stockport’s Freya Murdoch took pride of place with a winning performance in the Junior run.
Ruth Sinclair took some personal coaching tips from endurance international Wilson Kipsang (5th) to finish the main race in 16th ladies’ spot (38:54) but ahead of her was one further Harrier in the form of Hannah Griffiths in 10th place to stop the clock in 36:59 for the 10 kilometre circuit.
Stockport’s men showed well in the same event with first Harrier home being Jack Martin (14th – 29:34) and followed in by brother Patrick one place behind in 15th (30:49) and with further support from George Cooke (41st – 34:44) and Nicholas Hicketts (48th – 35:01).
A plethora of athletics events continues this coming weekend with the North of England track and field championships over two days at Sports City, the Greater Manchester schools championships on Saturday at Longford Park and for those who wish to take to or next to the rails there is the “Race the train” event from Bury Bolton street station to Rawtenstall at 11am on Sunday.
It’s a trail race of 11 miles with the locomotive and carriages expected to complete the journey in 1 hour and 40 minutes, this being the 10th incorporated event in the seasonal all Harriers race series.
There’s a further absolute beginners’ course from “couch to 5 kms” in eight weeks started on 6th June at Woodbank Community Centre, Turncroft lane, Offerton and is each Tuesday for eight weeks, further details may be found at “News” at www. stockportharriers.co.uk