North of England Cross Country Champs – Saturday 26^th January 2008

Roundhay Park, Leeds was the venue for this year’s Championships. A mild, but blustery, day resulted in a firm course which was testing as ever – especially the infamous Hill 60.

HHS had a strong turnout, which was reflected in excellent Team placings, achieved underpinned with some excellent individual performances.

Pride of place goes to the Senior Women, who took Gold by a single point ahead of Bingley. The scoring athletes were Hatti Dean (4^th), Julia Russell (8^th), Liz Such (28^th), Nicola Squires (32^nd). This is our first Senior Team victory at the Northern Champs for over 50 years. Well done, Ladies!!!!!

Also competing for the Senior Women were Kelly Candy (51), Liz Wild (61) Kathy Van Hee (76) Jenny Johnson (86) Hannah Whitelam (110) Julia Dick (122) Rachael Elder (125). As a point of interest, the B Team finished 8^th, although the NOE results only record the first team home.

Our U17 Men’s Team were also in the medals, winning Bronze via Richard Spooner (14^th) Joe Gratton (20^th) Tom Butler (43^rd) Harry Thorpe (83^rd), supported by Frank Thorpe (142).

Just outside medals were the U13 Girls, who finished 5^th. Scoring athletes were Claire Wilsher (17^th) Hannah Malmgren (32^nd) Fiona Bell (39^th) Alice Hague 142^nd) , supported by Rebecca Taylor (206). Despite missing some of the leading athletes, The Senior Men were a creditable 5^th (out of 53 scoring teams and 665 athletes); thanks to Paul Winskill (42^nd) Rick O’Toole (51^st) Oli Johnson (62^nd) Martin Bishop (63^rd) Scott Wilson (66^th) Darren Newbould (84^th). Other finishers were Mike Sprot (111) Dave Archer (132) Dave Sprot (145) Gareth Candy (324).

The U17 Women’s Team finished 7^th – Kate Russell (28^th) Kelly Hewitson (46^th) Rosie Upton (87th) Hayley Tranfield (89^th).

Star individual performance goes to Calli Thackery for her Bronze medal. Her excellent run helped the U15 Girls to 11^th place, along with Laurel Quinn (71^st) Ellie Bishop (74^th) Stephanie Rogers (146^th), and Stephanie Watson 171^st).

Other partial teams were:-

U15 Boys – Justin Boyd (78^th) Tom Heatley (82^nd) Freddie Reynolds (126^th)

U20 Women – Zanthe Wray (21^st) Alex Firth 27^th)

U20 Men – Andy Heyes (19^th) Nasir Hussain (60^th) Jamie Bennett (91^st)

Special mention to our neighbours Rotherham, whose U17 and U20 Women both took the Team Gold Team medals.

Full results can be found at http://www.noeaa-athletics.org.uk/Pages/Event.aspx?id=160&EventID=34