Harriers thrive in Sutton sunshine
AFTER a seemingly perpetual state of winter, six Stockport Harrier women stepped blinking out into the unfamiliar sunshine at the English Road Running Association’s Women’s 6 Stage National Road Relays at Sutton Park, Sutton-Coldfield.
The event attracts the best of the UK’s road athletes and welldeserved gold medals went to Leeds City Athletics Club on the day who fought up until the last leg with Cambridge and Coleridge Athletics Club to defend their 2017 title.
In the Men’s 12 Stage race, taking place at the same time, Tonbridge Athletics Club held their lead from the 7th leg onwards to secure the Championship title ahead of 2016 winners Highgate Harriers.
Stockport put forward an experienced senior women’s team in Lizzy Apsley, Elle Baker, Ruth Emily Sinclair, Imogen Elizabeth Nutter, Jennifer Hulley and Lou Geldart who, spurred on by the perfect conditions (and the delicious smell of doughnuts at the start), finished a very commendable 26th out of the 48 teams who competed.
Elle Baker ran the second fastest short leg overall in the race, only 22 seconds behind the first female in a fantastic 17:23 over the 3.1 mile short leg.
This was not a team who had competed together in this event before but they showed great camaraderie and put in a strong performance which they hope to build and improve on next year.
Clearly not fatigued by her efforts of the day before, Ruth Sinclair went on to take first women’s place at the scenic Whitley 10km on Sunday in a scorching time of 39:02.
By all accounts this was an eventful race with the wildlife of Cheshire making surprise appearances in the form of a buzzard that attacked an unfortunate Harrier – Nick James – as he innocently warmed up!
Luckily Nick escaped mostly unharmed and is clearly made of stern stuff as he went on to be the first Stockport Harrier over the finish line in 36:34.
Following in the footsteps of the escapee pony at this year’s Trafford 10k (who paced a few runners to new PBs) a rogue horse decided that life as a spectator was simply not interesting enough and charged through a hedge at the 3km mark to join in the race as Ruth made her way past.
Making this truly a family event, Ruth’s mum, Lesley Sinclair, celebrated her 55th birthday in style by picking up first prize in her first event in the V55 age category.
Clearly the Sinclairs get even better with age!
The winning time overall was 33.32 by Richard Coen from Wilmslow Running Club.
A mention must also go to Saffron Meade who, in her first year competing in the Under 13 age group, and in her first ever Pentathlon at Lancashire Combined Events on Sunday came an amazing third place, scoring 1526.
In addition she gained PBs in the 70m Hurdles and 800m at the end of the day in horrible weather conditions.
Winning performances also came from Holly Stewart with two Gold medals in the Discus with a PB of 20.54 and Shotput with a PB of 8.05 at Trafford Athletics Club Medal Meet.
Farther afield, Stockport’s Charlie Batho ran a hugely impressive 3:03:54 at the Boston Marathon, in atrocious conditions. Anyone who watched the marathon will recognise that it was a race of toughness rather than time.
Another Stockport Harrier, Andrew Davies competed in the Commonwealth Games Marathon for Wales and finished 11th in a time of 02:26:05!
This weekend the Primary Schools Cross Country presentation is being held on Saturday 28th April at 10.30am at Woodbank Park Athletics Track with plenty of prizes for the fantastic Stockport Juniors who competed this season.