NORTHERN TITLE FOR JACQUELINE
ETHERINGTON THE FIRST WOMEN’S CHAMP FOR HARRIERS SINCE 2001
Sunderland Harrier Jacqueline Etherington was crowned Northern Athletics women’s steeplechase champion in Manchester yesterday.
She impressively beat her personal best by nine seconds and dipped under eight minutes for the first time, clocking 7min 56.72sec at Sport City.
It was the Harriers’ first Northern track and field senior women’s championship success since Bev Blakeman won the 800m title in 2001.
There was also a silver medal for Declan Murray in the Under-20s men’s pole vault, with a height of 3.10.
In the 5000m, Houghton Harrier Lee Dover finished 23rd in 16.13.9, Sunderland Harrier Steven Duffy was 28th (16.29.5) and Steve McMahon 29th (17.12.5).
Sunderland Harrier Alice Smith was first woman to finish in yesterday’s New Marske Harriers 10k Road Race at Redcar.
She sliced eight seconds off her previous best in finishing 14th overall in 37.36.
Louise Talman (Darlington) was second woman in 39.55. Lewis Gamble Thompson, of the host club, won the race in 32.44.
Sunderland Strollers were out in force in the Run Nation Bamburgh 10k Road Race yesterday.
They also had a number of prize winners, including Lyne Valentine, who was first Over-60 (45.28), coming just two days after finishing second Over-55 in the Blaydon Race on Friday.
Club-mate Wendy Chapman was first Over-45 at Blaydon in 36.48. The other Stroller awards at Bamburgh went to Mike Hobson, second Over-45 in 16th (38.14), Ritchie Gerry, who was second Over-50 in 25th (40.01) and Bill Kirk, second Over-60 in 92nd (45.56).
The club’s other leading positions were: Chris Dwyer eighth (36.22), Luke McCormack 19th (38.52), Michael Dixon 32nd (40.42), Mark Ralph 33rd (40.48) and Nick Wild 34th (41.06).
Washington’s Peter Setterfield finished 20th (39.10) in the race won by Daniel Hastie of Scottish club Gala. There were 543 finishers.
Alistair Brownlee reigned supreme in Leeds for the second year in a row by once again defeating younger brother Jonny in the latest World Triathlon Series event.
The elder Brownlee has skipped the first three races of the season, opting instead to turn his attention more towards ‘Ironman’ events since retaining his Olympic title last year, but proved he is still the man to beat in this format in his home city.
The 29-year-old completed the 1.5k swim. the 38.6km bike ride and 10km run 1hr 46min 51sec.