English Schools Cross Country Brighton 8th March 2003

There were some excellent performances at Brighton by both Harriers and others, all representing their schools in the North Yorkshire teams. Allertonshire students Jessie Roberts and Andy Lagan both finished in the top twenty in their respective races, from fields of more than 300 runners. Jessie finished 12th in the Junior Girls race and was first counter in the N Y team which finished in 6th place. With an outstanding and well-judged run, despite the very fast start with the field converging onto an unsuitably narrow section, she was always well-placed and ran strongly throughout. Andy finished 18th in the Junior Boys race which was contested at a similarly hot pace. Jo Adams, also from the Allertonshire School, finished 162nd in the Junior Girls race; Amy Baines (Risedale) finished 294th in the Inter Girls race and Philip Fitzpatrick (Ripon GS) was 180th and fourth N Y team scorer in the Inter Boys race. Amateur athletics is a very honest sport and competitors know that not everyone can be a race winner but every student who reaches these Championships knows their achievement and sets a mark for their peers to aim for.

North East Counties Indoor Pentathlons Jarrow 8th March 2003

Kim Bartram and Sam Stanislaus both competed as guests in the N E Counties indoor Pentathlons at Jarrow. Both athletes have moved-up an age group and so both set new marks. In the under 17 Boys competition, Sam finished in 8th place with 2459 points and set two personal bests - 5m48 in the long jump and 1m77 in the high jump. As a result of these performances, Sam has been selected to train with the Elite Jumps Squad. Kim competed as in the under 20 Girls competition and, despite not setting any personal bests, finished in 5th place with 2270 points.

Dentdale Run 8th March 2003

The Dentdale Run is a 14½ mile race around the Pennine village which this year was nearly a triathlon. With appalling conditions and flood water 8" deep or more in places, the winning time of 1:20:37 by Steve Littler of Wesham Runners was a triumph in itself. Colin Sewell was first of three Harriers, finishing in 88th place with 1:46:23; Neil Piper was 148th in 1:52:08 and wife Liz finished 354th in 2:23:09, more than 50 minutes ahead of the last place runner/swimmer!