Whiteoak runs clear of rivals
MUD was served up in abundance for the annual Greater Manchester cross country championships at Woodbank Park with evergreen Katie Whiteoak exercising a superb win for host club Stockport in the under 20s womens’ event of 5.4 kilometres.
She stopped the clock in 22 minutes and 20 seconds and blew away the opposition in spite of the heavy going to take the title by just under a minute from second-placed club-mate Ruth Sinclair who took silver honours in 23:25.
There was further back up from University of Nottingham medical student Alice Hughes who completed the course in 27:42 for 10th position.
Another undergraduate, this time Elizabeth Apsley, excelled in her senior women’s race to finish in the bronze medal position (37:21) over a none too easy 8.4 kilometres course before returning to her studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
At the other end of the age spectrum, supervet Alexis Dinsmor continues to defy her age and accomplished a good finish time of 54:24 for her troubles and she is equally at home whether it be road, trail, fell or cross country racing.
In the junior under 13s girls race, Stockport picked up another individual bronze medal for the efforts of Daisy Keigher and in the under 15s girls event it was a close call for Natasha Moore (17th), Chloe Rogers (20th) and Lauren Burgess (27th).
In the equivalent boys’ event there was good team packing between Ben Batho (3rd), Flynn Walsh (7th) and Joe Philbin (23rd) and there is more to undertake before the end of the season in early March which will comprise a mix of championship and league events.
Stockport’s Jack Martin received the call and was awarded his first GB vest by participating in the televised Great Edinburgh cross country event at Holyrood Park with a fine finish in 24th position (25:42) for the eight kilometre circuit.
Up the front of the race it was fireworks and heartbreak in equal measure with hot prospect Callum Hawkins of Kilbarchan AAC having led for much of the race, being outsprinted by USA’s Leonard Korir who completed the event in 24 minutes and 3 seconds with Hawkins just one second behind in the silver medal position.
Jack Nixon, also from Stockport Harriers, took to treading the boards at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield in the BMC 3,000 metre indoor event, with 15 laps of the 200 metre track requiring the utmost of concentration to finish ninth in 8:46:25.
The world is Nixon’s oyster as he has a good knack of mixing and matching both on the road, track and cross country events and is considered to be an excellent all rounder on the local and national athletics circuit.
This coming Sunday, further opportunities are available to compete indoors in the South Yorkshire athletics meet, again at Sheffield’s Institute of Sport Arena.
For senior road runners who are just embarking into the sport for the first time, a new tranche of beginners’ training session run from 7 to 8pm (arrive by 6.45pm), commencing each Tuesday at the Woodbank Park athletics stadium.