Yorkshire Cross Country Champs – Saturday 5^th January 2008

Senior / U20 Men & Women

A windy high school field in Huddersfield was the venue for the 2008 Yorkshire Cross Country Champs. The course had lots of twists and turns and each lap had a sharp hill which got much tougher as the race went on!

In the senior men’s race, Rob Baker led the Hallamshire men home in 16^th, followed closely by Alex Smith in 18^th. Oli Johnson (29^th), Darren Newbould (36^th), Martin Broadhead (44^th) and Mike Sprot (48^th) completed the scoring team. The team finished 4^th, behind Leeds, Bingley and Holmfirth.

The rest of the Hallamshire senior men were Dave Sprot (64^th), Scott Wilson (65^th), Rob Lankester (94^th) and Dave Archer (101^st).

Unfortunately, due to Yorkshire rules classing Luke Stafford as a senior man, the junior men did not have a complete team. However, that did not stop them all running well, Andy Heyes finishing 4^th and being rewarded with selection for the Yorkshire Inter-Counties team. Nasir Hussain was 9^th and Jamie Bennett 14^th.

The senior women dominated, with four runners in the top 16 and victory in the team competition. Julia Russell had a great run to finish in 2^nd place, and Lizzie Adams was 6^th (but only 3 seconds down on third!). Julia and Lizzie have both been selected for the inter-counties team. Nicola Squires finished 11^th and completed the team.

There were lots of other strong runs, with Jodie Thake 16^th, Kathy Van-Hee 38^th, Alex Firth 50^th, Jennifer Dick 58^th and Clare Leventon 73^rd.

The next race is the Northern Cross Country Champs in Roundhay Park, Leeds, on Saturday 26^th January where the women will be hoping to repeat their success. The men should also have some of their missing runners back and will be looking to put in a strong team performance.

Full results can be found at http://www.noeaa-athletics.org.uk/Pages/Event.aspx?id=160&EventID=62

Mike Sprot