Cross Country Racing
Leaken Park, Brussels was the venue for the European Cross Country championships this year. A 1.5km loop of sharp bends, long hills and heavy mud was the perfect venue for the coming together of Europe’s best cross country runners. A large crowd of enthusiastic supporters enjoyed some great races, with Great Britain and Northern Ireland topping the medal tables, with 7 gold medals and 11 medals in total (individual and team).
The very competitive and closely fought senior men’s race saw Angus McMillan, in his GB debut, finish strongly in a sprint for the line with several other athletes as he came a very creditable 4th British runner and 38th overall in a field of 88 runners, just over a minute behind eventual winner, Frenchman, Yann Scrub. In the team event the British team came 5th.
Our congratulations to Angus on a fine performance in his first outing for the GB team.
On Sunday the last race in the West Yorkshire Cross Country League took place at a very muddy Oulton near Leeds. By the time of the last race in the programme almost the entire course was ankle deep mud with no dry patches for the legs to recover. The course was as much a test of survival as racing with most runners finding the conditions extremely difficult, there were even some runners lost shoes in the mud.
In the under 17 races Sophie Robertson-Dover got her first win in the League as she pulled away from Harrogate’s Nimah Robinson at the half way point to win by nearly a minute. However, in the overall series the 1,2 was reversed with Robinson taking the overall title. The under 17 women’s team won the team event both on the day and for the overall series. Charlie Fielding in 3rd place led the under 17 men’s team to 2nd place in the team event both on the day and the series.
The under 15 girls team had six runners finishing between 4th and 11th with Aimee Keefe leading the way. The team won the team race completing another clean sweep in the series. Louis Richardson was the leading under 15 boy from the club in 16th place.
James Bastow in 5th place was the leading runner from the club in the under 13 races as he came 5th. Ollie Wright, who didn’t run at Oulton, came 2nd in the series. Hannah Lovett was the first runner home in the under 13 girls race with 12th.
Harriet Brown was the only runner from the club to do the under 11 races as she came 8th.
Tim Stratton came 2nd in the senior men’s race for the second consecutive time. Tim kept with Ilkley’s Ben Rothery until the later stages to finish in a fine 2nd place, well ahead of Leeds’ Gayvn Chalmers who came 3rd. Mark Bolland-Cage completed a good series as he came 12th on the day and 3rd in the overall senior men’s series. The senior men came 5th on the day but didn’t complete the overall series as they were one runner short in the 3rd meeting. Maddalen Mastrolonardo came 6th in the senior women’s race with Jessica Robertson-Dover being 2nd under 20 on the day and Therese Jansson 3rd vet 35 in the overall series. Karen Wood, who didn’t race at Oulton, was 2nd vet 55.
Road Racing
Katy Wood and James Tucker both ran for the North of England team in the very competitive Telford 10k on Sunday. Katy ran 34.31 to come 33rd whilst James ran 31.03 to come 123rd.
Dave Lancaster travelled to the Longridge 7 mile road race near Preston and was 1st vet 65 in 51.26.
11 runners from the club did parkrun over the weekend. Isla Watson came 3rd at Heslington in 23.17. There were veteran age group wins for Jon Blake, Dave Lancaster and Steve Wright with junior age group wins for Bethany Ellerker and Noah Stipetic.
Indoor Track and Field
Once again a plethora of CoYAC athletes took part in events both at Sheffield and Manchester over the past weekend.
Some 18 athletes competed at the second Northern Athletics Open meeting last Saturday with an astonishing 14 personal best’s (PB) and six season best’s(SB). The headline was our Lily Craske who achieved two indoor club records on the day in the 60m (8.33sec) and the 150m (20.59), a brilliant start to the year for her.
In the 60m six athletes competed along with Lily’s great run, Ryan Mosey had a new PB with 7.57sec and Tom Wood returned to the track with a credible SB of 7.44. Zoe Bind started her season with a close to PB performance and Richard Parkinson had another consistent performance in the event.
The 60m hurdles saw all three competitors achieve new personal best’s with Imogen Bind, Juliette Callau and Summer Barnard all coming in the top three in their heats.
The 300’s were led home by Louis How in a season’s best 38 sec run, Lucy Boot had a great start with a new PB and there were season bests for Charlotte Stamp and Alfie Ryan. Will Johnson got his season underway with a opening 42.82.
The 600’s had four men competing with PB’s or SB’s for all. Led out by Edan Petrie in a life time best of 1:24.8, Louis How and Alfie Ryan ran new PB’s with James Palmer running a season’s best.
Off the track Imogen and Juliette both competed in the high jump with Juliette’s 1.45m being the standout performance. Four athletes competed in the long jump with personal best’s for Aiden Hughes (5.31m) and Lucy Boot (4.67m).
At Manchester’s Sport City Indoor arena on Sunday Isabel Dalton and Jessica Thirlwell competed in the 60m with a new PB for Jessica (8.48) on the day.