This year’s championships were at Pontefract Park on 26thJanuary. As you can see from the finishing times and positions, there were personal battles in both the ladies’ and men’s races, with places changing several times to gain the upper hand on club colleagues. With the mainly dry conditions the running was fast, and no quarter was given.
Nine of our ladies lined-up for their eight-kilometre race, with Jo Buckley the first Harrier home in 66th place out of the 376 finishers. Ruth Thackray (80th), Steph Robson (99th) and Lesley Watson (123rd) were the other three counters for the team competition in which they came a very respectable 11th in a field of 45 teams.
Pos | Name | Time |
66 | Jo Buckley | 32:58 |
80 | Ruth Thackray | 33:37 |
99 | Stephanie Robson | 34:39 |
123 | Lesley Watson | 35:33 |
148 | Denise Wright | 36:35 |
149 | Emma Green | 36:36 |
168 | Sarah Dewhirst | 37:23 |
235 | Becky Weight | 39:48 |
356 | Sally Robinson | 50:22 |
In the men’s 12-kilometre race there were 704 finishers of which Bingley had 13, but it was commiserations to James Senior, who was running well, but had to retire after eight kilometres due to injury. In the absence of our Olympians, and some of our other leading runners due to injury, it was down to Tim Midgley to lead us home in 139th place. In the team competition, our counters were Tim, Graham Askew (210th), John Convery (211th), Kev Garlick (299th), John Parkin (362nd) and Robbie Williams (367th). Forty-five clubs mustered complete teams and our men finished in 22nd place, another great performance.
Pos | Name | Time | Pos | Name | Time | |
139 | Tim Midgley | 0:44:14 | 513 | Simon Wright | 0:54:16 | |
210 | Graham Askew | 0:46:06 | 525 | Stephen Fry | 0:54:44 | |
211 | John Convery | 0:46:08 | 545 | Paul Lemmon | 0:55:42 | |
299 | Kevin Garlick | 0:48:28 | 618 | William Belcher | 0:59:19 | |
362 | John Parkin | 0:49:54 | 638 | Paul Spencer | 1:01:19 | |
367 | Robbie Williams | 0:50:00 | 672 | Emyr Rees | 1:04:36 | |
501 | Dave Stephenson | 0:53:51 |
A big thank you to Tony Kingham and Dave Potter, who were without their third musketeer, Graham Smith, but were there all day, putting the tent up, collecting numbers and racing round the course to provide much welcome support, they’re absolute legends. Thanks also to everyone who ran and to those who came along to cheer us on.
I hope to see you all at the National Championships on 23rdFebruary, when we’ll be holding a handicap in conjunction with the senior races. In the week before the championships you’ll get a handicap by email, which will be deducted from your finishing time. There’s a £20 voucher for a sports outlet for the men’s and ladies’ winners, so please ensure you make it to the start line – you’ve got to be in it to win it!
Stay fit, and I’ll see you all at Harewood for the National.
Stephen Fry
Cross Country Team Manager