Cross Country Racing
Angus McMillan easily defended his Yorkshire Cross Country title that were held at Lightwater Valley on Saturday. Angus made his intentions clear from the start as he immediately hit the front and found no takers in the field for his relentless pace. Angus’ winning time of 33.33 for the 10.5k course was just over a minute ahead of the 2nd placed runner. There was also team success as the club earned its first team medals in the senior men’s Yorkshire Cross Country Championships for at least 30 years as the club came 3rd behind very strong teams from Leeds City and Hallamshire Harriers. The other counters in the team were Tim Stratton (18th), James Tucker (21st), Finnian Hutchinson (32nd), Mark Bolland-Cage (36th) and Archie Lawson (38th).
Katy Wood running her first cross country race of the winter came 3rd in the senior women’s race. Katy was in the lead group of runners until the last lap when Great Britain 800m runner Alex Bell pulled away to win the race.
Lottie Langan displayed her usual strong finish to win the under 17 women’s race by around 50 metres as she led the club to its only team gold medal of the day with Amy Kennedy (11th) and Katarina Savkovic (12th) being the other two runners in the team. The club took home silver team medals in the under 20 men’s and under 15 girl’s races. Individually Isaac Stabler came 5th in the under 17 race whilst there were 9th places for Charlie Wright (under 20) Isabel Madden (under 15) and James Bastow (under 13).
The club also had four medallists in the Humberside cross country championships that were held at Scunthorpe on Sunday. Sophie Robertson-Dover and Charlie Fielding both claimed gold in the under 17 races with Jess Robertson-Dover getting a silver medal in the under 20 race and Ben Falkingham earning a bronze medal in the under 13 race.
Indoor Track
England Athletics staged their Indoor Combined Events Competition at EIS in Sheffield at the weekend with four of our club athletes taking part – Will Reid, Isaac Henson, Frances Hogg and Esme Pounder along with their coach Sam Stanislaus.
19 athletes started the female U20 pentathlon competition with Frances finishing in 5th place overall and Esme finishing in 9th. Frances scored an overall PB of 3526 points with individual personal bests in the 60m hurdles and high jump and putting in very solid performances in the other 3 events. Fran finished third in the North of England and also the fourth best English athlete meaning her missing out on England selection by one place. Esme scored an overall PB of 3140 points with individual personal bests in the 60m hurdles and Shot.
There were 21 athletes in the U20 male heptathlon competition with Will finishing in 4th place overall and Isaac finishing in 12th. Will scored an overall PB of 4889 points but fell agonisingly short of selection for the England team by just 25 points. He was in second place at the end of day 1 after an equal PB in the 60m, a PB in the Shot and performances close to his best in the pole vault and long jump. Will also had a strong start in both the 60m Hurdles and the high jump on day 2 and gained a PB in the 1000m for a 4th place finish.
Isaac enjoyed a really strong competition with a big overall heptathlon PB of 4383 points. Isaac gained PB’s in the 60m and long jump on day 1 and in the high jump and 1000m on day 2.
Also at Sheffield on Sunday were Rob Shipley and Eden Petrie who were taking part in the BMC Indoor 800m. Rob ran an impressive 1:55.70 for a PB while Eden ran a 1:59.10.
Across the Pennines in Manchester, Talia Northcott ran a very impressive 8.27 seconds in her 60m and then threw a big 9.88m for a PB in the shot.
Other Distances Races
Over a slightly longer distance Chrissie Dover was 2nd female and 7th overall in the Hardmoors 30 miles race, that was actually 34 miles, that was held on Saturday on the North Yorkshire coast round Robin Hood’s Bay.
The club had a lot less runners doing parkrun due to the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships taking place with just 7 runners doing one. On Saturday there were age group wins for Josh Reid, Bethany Ellerker and Dave Lancaster whilst Noah Stipetic and Brodie Barrow were the first two runners across the line in Sunday’s York junior parkrun.