Handforth Wilmslow Alderley Athletics Club

Track & Field Results: Round3 - Ashton

Was everyone on holidays!

Only Andy and Bree competed. Well done Bree for being our champion of the day.

Thank you also to Mike, Jim and Andy for Officiating.  The Results are as follows:

Senior Men Shot	Posn	Athlete	A String	Time/Dist.	Points
	1	Adam Edgar	Macclesfield H & AC	10.51m
	5	Andy  Acton	Handforth AC	6.57m	4
U11 Girls 600m			A & B Race
	1	Hannah Gooding	Macclesfield H & AC	02:00.7
	7	Bree Livesey	Handforth AC	02:33.8	6
U11 Girls 75m			A Race
	1	Hannah Gooding	Macclesfield H & AC	11.2
	5	Bree Livesey	Handforth AC	13.3	4
U11 Girls Long Jump			A String
	1	Niamh Lewis	Macclesfield H & AC	3.61m
	4	Bree Livesey	Handforth AC	2.64m	6

Cross Country Fixtures 2010-11

Cheshire County Athletics have released the cross country fixtures.

Date	Venue
02-Oct	N Staffs League at Knights Grange (tbc)
23-Oct	Manchester X-C League Round 1, Heaton Park
21-Nov	Manchester X-C League Round 2, Sherdley Park
04-Dec	Manchester X-C League Round 3, Boggart Hole Clough
2011
02-Jan	Manchester X-C League Round 4, Woodbank Park, Stockport
12-Feb	Manchester X-C League Round 5, Clayton Vale (nr Velodrome)
19-Feb	ECCA Cross Country Championships, Alton Towers

More details, regarding the times and directions, will appear on the Events and Races as they become known

Track & Field report Round 2 - Macclesfield

A very good turnout at Macclesfield saw us do very well for a small club!

 

Well done to:

Harry Stobart, James Crossley, Jamie Scobbie, Joel Norman, Asuka Okishio, Harry Sumner, George Sumner, Luke James, Jemma Dempster, Chloe Atkins, Jack Dempster, Harry Botham and Rory Stobart.

 

And to the parents Andy Acton, Chris Botham and Dean Sumner who also competed.

 

The highlights were:

 

·Men , 2nd in discus;

·u15boys, 4th in shot,

·u13 boys 1st equal in discus;

·u11 boys 2nd in soft javelin.

·u15 boys were 2nd in High jump and 3rd in relay.

 

Although we were last, 6th, on combined team scores,

·our men were 5th in their age group!!;

·the u15's 4th;

·u13's 2nd

·and u11 boys 2nd.

 

It wouldn't need too many more athletes for us to show up well.

 

On the girls' side, our three girls did their best against very strong opposition?

I wonder why the other clubs stronger on the girls' side?  Any ideas?

~

 

 

Track & Field Results: Round2 - Macclesfield

In no Particular Order..  we have the results from the fanatastic effort you all put in 11th July.

 

Event/ Position	Letter	Name	Club	Time	Grade
Senior Men 200m			A Race
1	Y	Daniel Savin	Stockport H & AC	23.2
6	H	A Acton	Handforth AC	32.1
Senior Men 200m			B Race
1	K	Reece Ingley	Trafford AC	23.3
7	H	C Botham	Handforth AC	30.2
Senior Men Discus			A String
1	J	Ashley Pritchard	Macclesfield H & AC	31.92
2	H	D Sumner	Handforth AC	24.74
Senior Men Discus			B String
1	J	Simon Sloan	Macclesfield H & AC	27.41
2	H	A Acton	Handforth AC	19.53
Senior Men/Combined 3000m
1	Y	m -Aidrian Nutter	Stockport H & AC	10.02.7
11	H	m -C Botham	Handforth AC	13.49.5
U15 Men High Jump			A String
1	D	Luke Ward	Deeside	1.65	G2
3	H	H Stobart	Handforth AC	1.40
U15 Men High Jump			B String
1	D	Sion Murray	Deeside	1.40
2	H	J Crossley	Handforth AC	1.25
U15 Men 100m			B Race
1	D	Luke Ward	Deeside	12.7
5	H	J Scobbie	Handforth AC	14.8
U15 Men 100m			C Race
1	D	Brad Thomas	Deeside	13.0
3	H	J Crossley	Handforth AC	14.1
U15 Men 100m			D Race
1	D	Alex Peters	Deeside	13.5
2	H	H Stobart	Handforth AC	14.1
U15 Men Shot			A String
1	C	Connor Laverty	Menai	11.96	G2
4	H	J Norman	Handforth AC	7.08
U15 Men Shot			B String
1	D	Brad Thomas	Deeside	7.66
3	H	J Scobbie	Handforth AC	6.60
U15 Men 4*100m
1	D	Luke Ward	Deeside	50.9
		Brad Thomas	Deeside
		Alex Peters	Deeside
		Lloyd Robbins	Deeside
3	H	J Scobbie	Handforth AC	56.8
		J Crossley	Handforth AC
		J Norman	Handforth AC
		H Stobart	Handforth AC
U13 Men 100m			A Race
1	J	Joe Dines	Macclesfield H & AC	14.7
5	H	G Sumner	Handforth AC	16.1
U13 Men 100m			B Race
1	J	Harry Palmer	Macclesfield H & AC	15.2
5	H	L James	Handforth AC	17.0
U13 Men 100m			C Race
1	J	Alex Cridland	Macclesfield H & AC	15.0
3	H	H Sumner	Handforth AC	16.3
U13 Men Long Jump			A String
1	C	Jack Daly	Menai	4.04
4	H	L James	Handforth AC	3.52
U13 Men Long Jump			B String
1	C	Unkown Athlete	Menai	3.76
3	H	H Sumner	Handforth AC	3.00
U13 Men Discus			A String
1	J	Joe Dines	Macclesfield H & AC	14.85
2	H	H Sumner	Handforth AC	13.77
U13 Men Discus			B String
1	H	L James	Handforth AC	11.93
U13 Men 1500m			A & B Race
1	Y	Ryan Babcock	Stockport H & AC	4.51.2	G1
9	H	G Sumner	Handforth AC	6.05.0
U11 Boys 75m			A Race
1	J	Joseph Thompson	Macclesfield H & AC	11.0
6	H	Rory Stobart	Handforth AC	13.8
U11 Boys 75m			B Race
1	J	Matthew Mercer	Macclesfield H & AC	11.2
5	H	H Botham	Handforth AC	13.7
U11 Boys 75m			C Race
1	K	Kieran McDonald	Trafford AC	12.4
4	H	J Dempster	Handforth AC	13.4
U11 Boys Long Jump			A String
1	K	Dom Blake	Trafford AC	3.71
5	H	H Botham	Handforth AC	2.39
U11 Boys Long Jump			B String
1	J	Matthew Mercer	Macclesfield H & AC	3.23
5	H	Rory Stobart	Handforth AC	2.37
U11 Boys Soft Javelin			A String
1	J	Joseph Thompson	Macclesfield H & AC	12.87
2	H	J Dempster	Handforth AC	10.19
U11 Boys Soft Javelin			B String
1	J	Jonty Cridland	Macclesfield H & AC	9.10
2	H	Rory Stobart	Handforth AC	8.23
U15 Women 200m			A Race
1	D	Beth Sargent	Deeside	27.1	G3
5	H	Asuka Orishio	Handforth AC	35.1	G4
U15 Women Long Jump			A String
1	D	Beth Sargent	Deeside	4.69
6	H	Asuka Orishio	Handforth AC	2.76
U13 Women 200m			B Race
1	J	Eleanor Bird	Macclesfield H & AC	31.7
4	H	Chloe Atkins	Handforth AC	33.4
U13 Women Shot			A String
1	J	Naomi Kershaw	Macclesfield H & AC	7.01	G3
6	H	Gemma Dempster	Handforth AC	4.50

 

Well Done everyone.

 

I can't wait to see how many will turn out next time 8th August at Richmond Park, Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Quad Kids or 5 Star Points .. I don't know which to choose!

Jim has analysed the results of our quadrathon.  Using the 5 star points method gives us a slightly different view.

 

No	Name	Age group		Sex	QK score	5 Star score
104	Sophie Grannan	u15		g	189	174
102	Hannah Cusworth	u15		g	197	170
105	Hannah Lee	u15		g	157	135
106	Asuka Okishio	u15		g	148	129
25	Rebecca Webb	u10		g	135	122
23	Emily Short	u10		g	113	112
107	Marianne Ridley	u15		g	124	108
66	Sophie Emsley	u12		g	117	107
63	Philippa Cooke	u12		g	115	105
67	Haruka Okishio	u12		g	99	100
61	Chloe Atkins	u12		g	83	83
62	Jasmine Bracken	u12		g	76	79
21	Anna Gardener	u11		g	73	78
26	Daisy Sumner	u10 (u9)		g	58	63
Boys
87	Harry Stobart	u15		b	244	202
82	James Crossley	u15		b	197	196
86	Jamie Scobbie	u15		b	196	189
44	Luke James	u12		b	196	179
41	Matthew Boyle	u12		b	177	171
42	Jacob Chesterton	u12		b	170	169
48	Harry Sumner	u12		b	176	166
6	Harvey Wain	u11		b	181	165
43	Harry Gardiner	u12		b	164	160
5	Oscar Stone	u11		b	138	145
1	Harry Botham	u10		b	114	139
7	Thomas Watts	u11		b	96	108
2	Jack Dempster	u10		b	63	74
4	Rory Stobart	u11		b	56	73

 

Which one do you prefer?  You can choose.  Or you can just be proud that you did your very best.

 

Well done everyone.  there's always next year .. or you can nag Jim to have another event before the clocks go back [don't tell I said that  :) ]

Quad Kids Scores!

Below are the Quadkids resultsfrom our QuadKids event in May!  Sorry forthe delay kids!

No	Name	Age group		Sex	QK score
102	Hannah Cusworth	u15		g	197
104	Sophie Grannan	u15		g	189
105	Hannah Lee	u15		g	157
106	Asuka Okishio	u15		g	148
25	Rebecca Webb	u10		g	135
107	Marianne Ridley	u15		g	124
66	Sophie Emsley	u12		g	117
63	Philippa Cooke	u12		g	115
23	Emily Short	u10		g	113
67	Haruka Okishio	u12		g	99
61	Chloe Atkins	u12		g	83
62	Jasmine Bracken	u12		g	76
21	Anna Gardener	u11		g	73
26	Daisy Sumner	u10 (u9)		g	58
Boys
87	Harry Stobart	u15		b	244
82	James Crossley	u15		b	197
86	Jamie Scobbie	u15		b	196
44	Luke James	u12		b	196
6	Harvey Wain	u11		b	181
41	Matthew Boyle	u12		b	177
48	Harry Sumner	u12		b	176
42	Jacob Chesterton	u12		b	170
43	Harry Gardiner	u12		b	164
5	Oscar Stone	u11		b	138
1	Harry Botham	u10		b	114
7	Thomas Watts	u11		b	96
2	Jack Dempster	u10		b	63
4	Rory Stobart	u11		b	56

Jim thinks the Quad scores don't reflect the comparison between age groups .. so he will analyse and compare the different scoring method between the Quad Kids and the 5 Star Rating which we use  for our Award Certificates Which you get in November!

Cheshire Relays 3rd July - Crewe: Teams

The Sprint relays start at 11:00am in Crewe. There is a 4 x 100 and a 3 x 800 race.

Athletes need to be leaving Wilmslow by 10:00 if possible. If we know the teams I'm sure shared transport can be arranged if that helps. I suggest we do this this Thursday.

The 800m relays start at about 2:00pm and I guess ours would be over by about 3:00pm.

Team News

Let Jim/Mike/Julie know immeadiately if there is a problem

U13 Boys:

·Harry Sumner

·Matthew Boyle

·George Sumner

·TBA

U15 Boys:

·James Crossley

·Marcus Dalgaard

·Joel Norman

·Jamie Scobbie

·Fergus Taylor

·Ross Waddell

U15 Girls:

·Hannah Cusworth

·Fiona Dalglish

·Sophie Grannan

·Hannah Lee

Quadkids : quadrathon results

The summary of the quadkids results for our quadrathon is shown below.  It lists the top 3 in each event and the the top placements for each age group not represented in the top 3. It shows the points scored on the QK system for that event, plus the overall placements for both boys and girls.:

 

 

Event	Top 3	Top of remaining groups
Sprint:
	1 H Stobart (59)	u11B H Wain (49)
	2 H Cusworth (58)	u11G R Webb (48)
	3 J Crossley (57)	u13B H Sumner (46)
		u13G P Cooke (41)
Jump:
	1 J Crossley (64)	u15G H Cusworth (48)
	2 H Stobart (60)	u11B H Wain (44)
	3 L James (52)	u13G S Emsley (31)
		u11G R Webb (25)
600m:
	1 M Boyle (56)	u11B H Wain (49)
	2 J Chesterton (55)	u11G E Short (40)
	3 H Stobart (54)	u13G P Cooke 31)
	3 H Cusworth (54)	u15G H Okishio (31)
Throw:
	1 J Scobbie (82)	u15G S Grannan (51)
	2 L James (73)	u11B T Watts (41)
	3 H Stobart (71)	u11G R Webb (24)
		u13G J Bracken (22)
Top 5 placements:	Girls	Boys
1	H Cusworth	H Stobart
2	S Grannan	J Crossley
3	H Lee	L James
4	A Okishio	J Scobbie
5	R Webb	H Wain

 

I hope you all enjoyed that evening!  We did timing and measuring you all J.

 

As usual any mistakes please let us know.

 

Cheshire Track & Field Results: Round 1 - Bebbington

We have had difficulty in getting the results from Round 1 match at Bebbington.  The computer system used is et up for 6 teams and we were number 7!  Hence our results did not come out.  Jim has managed to extract some data which I have formulated into results table below.  The results sheets do not give any results for Gemma Dempster nor for any Handforth non-scorers.– sorry.

.

U11 B				Long jump		Soft javelin
	Jack Dempster			2.20m	7A	9.74m	3A
U13 B		200m		High jump		Shot		800m
	George Sumner	32.9s	7A			3.58m	5A
	Tom Botham	32.6	5B	1.05m	5A	3.23m	4B
	Brendon Smith	35.8	4C					3m 03.5s	13th
	George Ridley	38.6	4D					3m 00.2s	11th
	Team	Relay	3rd
U15 B		200m				Discus
	Jamie Scobbie	31.2	6A			15.32m	5A
U15 G								1500m
	Marianne Ridley							6m 58.7s	11th
Men						Javelin		3000m
	Andy Acton					26.18	3A	14m 10.8s	9th
	Chris Botham					23.44m	2B
Team Match (men)
		U13	u15	u17	Men	Total
1	East Cheshire (O)	24	28	24	66	162
2	West Cheshire (I)	56	26	32	34	148
3	Colwyn Bay (M)	48	46	60	34	168
4	Deeside (D)	32	28	2	0	62
5	Wirral (V)	22	24	10	34	90
6	Menai (C)	16	22	42	10	90
7	Handforth (H)	26	8	0	16	50
	Relative Position	4th	7th	n/a	5th

 

Marrianne’s gutsy 1500m earned 2 valuable points for the club. . Jack Dempster as an u11 boy would have scored 6 match points.  His results would not have affected the match scores of the other six clubs. Well done everbody.

Also a special mention must go to Andy and Chris for their achievement of 2nd place in the Men’s Javelin. This is a great result which we hope will inspire other parents out there to come along and have a go and in turn provide inspiration to the younger athletes. Or perhaps you youngsters should start nagging your parents to try J !!

 

Please let me know at Patrick.[email protected] if there are any omissions or errors.

 

Looking forward to some good performances at Macclesfield on Sunday.

 

Cheshire Track & Field Round 2 - July 11th at Macclesfield

Registration is 11.30am, finishing around 4pm.  If you are interested please let me know and we can work out events etc. particularly for the u13 boys as there are lots of you!!

Lets get another good turnout.  If we know you are coming beforehand and we can allocate the events for you to do then it may well be possible to turn up half an hour before your event - as long as we know.

More details at the Thursday training sessions.

Subscriptions Due - have you forgotten?

Subscriptions for the season 20110/11 are due by the end of April.  It is now almost July and there are a few  outstanding – it may have slipped your mind. 

If you are unsure whether you have paid them, then please check with Mike as soon as possible to ensure that you have paid and we have the necessary funds to buy equipment and subsidise entry fees.  Thank you.

Cheshire Relays 3rd July - Crewe

The Sprint relays start at 11:00am in Crewe. There is a 4 x 100 and a 3 x 800 race.

Athletes need to be leaving Wilmslow by 10:00 if possible. If we know the teams I'm sure shared transport can be arranged if that helps. I suggest we do this this Thursday.

The 800m relays start at about 2:00pm and I guess ours would be over by about 3:00pm.

Team News

U13 Boys:

·Harry Sumner

·Matthew Boyle

·George Sumner

·TBA

U15 Boys:

·James Crossley

·Marcus Dalgaard

·Joel Norman

·Jamie Scobbie

·Fergus Taylor

·Ross Waddell

U15 Girls:

·Hannah Cusworth

·Fiona Dalglish

·Sophie Grannan

·Hannah Lee

Cheshire Relay Championships 2009

A great turnout for this year Cheshire Relay Championships in Ellesmere Port. We had 5 teams out for the 4 x 100m, u11 Girls, 2 x u11 Boys, u13 Boys & u15 Boys.

All 5 teams did really well, particularly the u11s with all 3 teams getting to the finals. The u11 Boys missed out on a medal by only 0.6 second! Full results can be found on the Cheshire AA Website: Results Team Photos can be found here: Photos 

Cheshire T&F League, Round 1 - Stockport

19th April 2009

As far as the day went we had a good turnout (boosted by 3 of Jim's flock) though having only 2 girls was disappointing. At first glance there were about 11 PB's bettered and many new marks set by our "first timers". Of the PB's the ones of particular note are George Sumner who bettered his 600m time by 6.5 secs, Jamie Scobbie clipped 3 secs off his 200m time and Kevin Acton 2.4 secs (all these will require confirming). James Grannan bettered his Triple Jump distance by almost a meter and Joel Norman added 0.26m to his Long Jump taking him over the 4m mark for the first time, whilst you pushed out your Javelin PB by 1.23m. However the best performer of the day was Fergus who set 3 PB's including putting 11cm on his High Jump and 1.9m on his Shot Putt. The overall performance of our athletes was very good with many 1st, 2nd and 3rd places being recorded in the events/heats so it will be interesting to see how we are placed in the league table, all in all a very satisfying start to the season.

Mike

There are 47 photos from the day, sorry if I've missed you but with so many athletes it was difficult to get everyone: Photos  If you want to look at your times, distances, heights or placements the full results can be found here: Results There are a few errors on the official results but we do hope to get them corrected.

Graham

UKA Inter Counties XC - Nottingham - 7th March

Kevin Acton U13B represented Cheshire at the Inter Counties XC race in Nottingham. This was a televised, invite only event with the best runners in the country from u13 to seniors. Kevin thoroughly enjoyed himself coming in about 3/4 down the field. Cheshire team were 23 out of 40.

A great achievement to run for your county, well done. Apparently he even spotted himself on television! Results

Sporthall - Regional Final

 The finale to the Sportshall athletics season is a UK final at the NEC Birmingham between teams representing the regions of England and the other countries of the UK.  Before that county teams contest regional finals for the honour of representing their region. This year, two Handforth athletes, James Grannan and Joel Norman, were selected for the Cheshire team that gathered for the North West Final at Robin Park, Wigan on 22^nd February. 

James and his under-15s team-mates faced rivals from Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, with Joel’s age group (under 13s) also including a team from Cumbria. The schedule contained most of the events familiar from the NW League with the addition of high jump and obstacle relay for the under-13s and paarlauf races in both age groups. There were girls team in both age groups too.

 

 

Joel with first up, having the dubious honour of being the first Cheshire boy to compete as he led off the obstacle relay.  His lightning start immediately put him in a good position and he handed over in 2^nd place to his team-mate, a placing that the Cheshire team held to the finishing line. His next event was speed bounce where, despite a couple of slips, he earned 6^th place with 71 bounces.  Joel’s final event was his least favourite, the 6-lap relay time trial, where he again came in 6^th out of the 12 runners.

 

 

James was also picked for speed bounce where his 77 bounces earned him a respectable 6^th place.  Next came the standing long jump where he achieved a best jump of 2.24m. Then it was on to his preferred track events, starting with the 4-lap time trial race. James’s sportshall experience showed here as he paced himself perfectly in the more competitive of the two heats allowing him to take fourth place overall for the event.  Finally there was the 8-lap Paarlauf, an interesting really in which 2 runners for each team run 4 laps each but in any combination of their own choice. The event turned out to be a stand-off between just two teams with Lancashire just beating the Cheshire pair to take maximum points.

 

And the final outcome?  With so many events and no team with an obvious clear advantage, it was impossible for the spectators to keep track of scores, so there was an excited buzz as the athletes assembled for the presentations.  In the end it turned out to be an extraordinarily successful day for Cheshire who took first place in three out of the four categories, and narrowly missed out in the under-15 boys event as there 635 points was just 9 behind the winners, Lancashire.  A shame for James, after his fantastic contribution to sportshall for Handforth, but an exciting day at the NEC in prospect for Joel.

 

Altogether this was a superb event.  The Cheshire team managers were positive and supportive. The final was extremely well-organised and conducted in a great atmosphere. And a final thought for our other athletes - compete in the league next season and you may be noticed by our county selectors!

 

Mark Norman

MAXCL - Match 5, Wythenshawe Park - 7th Feb 2009

Todays last race of the series clashed with the Manchester Schools Championships so this gave our runners the opportunity to gain a high placement for a final position. And didn't they just!

Wythenshawe is a flat course but the woods section holds a few very wet ditches ditches to catch the unwary runner out. Hannah u13Gs had a fantastic race settling in to 3rd place almost from the start. She held that position to the finish line never looking threatened, an excellent run.

Next was Kevin u13B, with perhaps too fast a start he soon dropped down to 6th place and a gap started to open up infront of him. Kevin percevered and made sure that gap wasn't too much. With 100m to go he had a huge effort to put in to gain another place. Yet again he kicked for the finish not only overtaking the runner in front but clinching 4th place at the finish line!

James u15B had a strong feild in front of him. He worked really hard keeping pace with 2 Warrington AC runners. Dropping back a little in the woods he nevertheless came out of the woods in 9th place with a strong sprint finish. He even jogged away from the finish line. Terrific run.

Full results and photos can be found here: Results and a few photos of my own here: Photos

The final series placements in the MAXCL are:

Hannah Cusworth u13G   10th

Kevin Acton u13B            2nd

James Grannan u15B       11th

These are great results. Terrific work by our three regulars.

N.W. Sportshall League Result - Round 4 – Widnes, 18/1/09

It was good to see so many new faces at our final Sportshall event of the season. Out of the ten athletes seven had not been to any of the earlier events of the season, even better, for the first time we were able to field a relay team in one age group.

 

In the Under 11 Girls age group we have to congratulate Cloe Atkins & Sophie Emsley who on their very first outing for the club produced some excellent results, Sophie recording the forth highest overall score in her age group.

 

Ewan McWalter had newcomer Daniel Bundred for company on this occasion and both had a good afternoon with Ewan taking second place in the 4 Lap Race and whilst he could not manage to equal his club record in the Chest Push (CP), he did beat the opposition to take first place with an excellent throw of 6.25m.   Daniel who has only been with the club for a few weeks also did very well and was placed forth in both the 2 Lap Race and the Standing Long Jump (SLJ).

 

The five strong Under 15 Girls team had a super day with Abigail Acton and Katie Wharton both setting two P.B.s, Abigail with 2.05m in the SLJ and 5.72m in the Standing Triple Jump (STJ), and Katie with 2.00m in the SLJ and 7.00m in the Shot Putt (SP).  Imogen and Emily Taylor (not related) both tried new events setting good marks for the future, Imogen recording 65 in the speed bounce to take 3^rd place.  However one of the best performances of the day came from April Gardner being the only member of the squad to take on the 6 Lap Race who after a real gutsy run in a very competitive race was placed 3^rd with a time of 1:44.2, so great was her effort and determination that she finished too exhausted to take her place in the relay team (the team did however manage a 3^rd place in the race).  On the day the Girls were the second highest scoring team in the league.

 

Not to be out done by the girls, James Grannan (U.15 Boy) once again put in a terrific performance taking first place in the 6 Lap Race and the Speed Bounce (equalling his club record) and third place in both the Standing Long Jump and Vertical Jump to finish off a cracking Sportshall season.

 

Our congratulations to all our athletes for supporting the club and on an excellent performance.

 

Mike Bullock

North of England XC Championships

With a couple of thousand runners and as many supporters cheering on, this was a major XC event. It attracts all of the best runners from all the top Athletics Clubs over the whole of Northern England. So no pressure then!

At 12:15, Hannah Cusworth was lining up with 163 other entries in the u13Gs. A 3km course over two laps on soft ground but at least the weather was kind. Hannah had made sure she was near the front at the start and at the gun they sprinted off the start line. The pace soon settled down and it was down to hard work. Concentrating throughout, she held her ground finishing with a sprint to pass 5 runners at the end to secure in 92nd place. A great performance.

Next was James Grannan, u15B amongst 159 other athletes. A 4km course again over a small and then large lap with a couple of extra hills thrown in. James again ensured he was at the front of the pack and after 50m was winning! A more sensible pace was established and James was comfortably in the middle of the pack. At halfway he looked relaxed but now in the upper half of the race. He cleverly used the extra down hill to grab another place. His final position was 89th and I think it was his best performance this season. James looked pleased with it too!

Finally, at 1:50 it was Kevin Acton, u13B with 184 other athletes. The 3km course now thoroughly cut up by 2 ¹/₂ hours of racing was very soft and heavy. Kevin ran strongly but sensibly. He gained ground throughout the race and finished in a terrific 58th place.

It is a great experience to run in these large major XC events. Our 3 club runners worked hard and were rewarded with superb positions. They should be very proud of their achievements.

Results can be found here: Results and a few photographs here: Photos or on the Northern Athletics Web Site: NOEAA

Cheshire XC Championships - Winsford, 10th Jan 2009

It was bitterly cold and with a breeze, doubly so. But our runners lined up keen and ready to go. Now the County Championships is all the Cheshire Athletic Clubs best runners competing against each other. Every County in the country was holding an event that day, so it was a strong field.

The u13G & u13B were running in the same race, 2,900m over flat frozen fields. We had Joel to boost our regular 3 and he duly set off with Kevin and Hannah on a fast downhill start. With 1/2 a mile to go Kevin was vying with a Vale Royle runner for 4th or 5th place. With 20m to go it was still neck and neck but Kevin was pipped at the line. However with a 5th place Kevin has been picked to run for his County at the Inter-county Championships in Nottingham, a televised event! Kevin had worked really hard to secure that place, a fantastic effort. Next in was Hannah, with 1/2 a mile to go she was in 13th place but her strong finish gave her 12th and again selected as a reserve for her County. Another superb result. Joel, not having been able to race all season nevertheless showed his great ability coming in 21st, well up the field.

James was up against another strong field but over 4,800m. A third of the way round he was in 13th place just outside a reserve county position. But there were a lot of keen runners out there and with 1/2 mile to go he was in 19th place. James pulled back a place and was only beaten by 1 u17G so again demonstrated his improved performance this year. James needs some more training mileage so that he can maintain his undoubted speed in the second half of races.

So great results all round for our club runners. Official results can be found here: AWAITED, and a few photos here: Photos

Graham