Autumn Round Up

Rounding-up the missing results for Richmond and Zetland Harriers takes you far and wide - John Wild definitely went furthest, making a trip to Hungary for the World Throwing Championships, but others travelled to Manchester and Carlisle for competition.

John Wild has had the busiest of summers with throws competitions. His season started on Saturday 3rd May with the first NML T&F match at Clairville Stadium, Middlesbrough and his first major Championships were the BMAF Throws Decathlon at Buckingham, also in May, where he finished 2nd in his M50 category. His second major was BMAF National T&F Championships at Derby over the weekend Saturday 7th/Sunday 8th June where he gained a bronze medal in the Discus 3rd and later that month he competed in the North East Veterans T&F Champs where he was 1st in each of four individual throws. John competed in all the throwing events at all the NML matches and also in the hammer and discus in the first round of the Knock-out Plate in July - he won several times over and scored his weight in points. The Fourth World Throwing Championships and Throwarama (a festival of throwing, implements of all shapes and weights) were at Tata, Hungary in August and John competed first in the weights pentathlon - the four traditional throws plus a 28 lb heavy hammer, all scored by converting distances into points. He won a bronze medal for 3rd place in the Heavy Hammer, which was contested as an individual event within the pentathlon, and then collected another bronze for 3rd place in the Super Heavy 56 lb Hammer. The Yorkshire Veterans T&F Championships were at South Leeds Stadium on Sunday 7th September and John won four golds and retained all four of his M50 throws titles. The North East Veterans Throws Quadrathlon on Saturday 27th September was John’s penultimate Championship and he finished in 1st place. The Quadrathlon is unique in it’s scoring - multiplying the shot put distance by 4 & adding it to the distances gained in the other three throws - and whoever throws furthest, wins! John’s last Championships, the BMAF Weight Pentathlon were at Burton-on-Trent on October 5th where he finished the season as he started with another 2nd place and, to add icing to his cake, during the season he also managed to achieve PBs in both the discus and the shot - albeit with Veterans weights.

Gary Bastow has also completed a busy season in the BOFRA Championships. At Embsay in September he was 13th overall and 3rd M40; on Saturday 11th October, running 2000 feet up Kirk Fell at the Wasdale Head Show, Gary finished 9th, beating his bête-noir Mark Selkild of Nottingham but still 2nd M40 on the day, ending the year in 5th overall.

Andrea Woodvine is into her third year at Nottingham University and has been elected Captain of the X-C team. Their opening event this winter was the Manchester University Relays on Saturday 11th at Wythenshawe Park; the “A” team finished 3rd and Andrea brought the “B” team home in 6th place, running her 2 mile leg in 12:20, faster than two of the “A” team!

The inaugural Inov 8 Trail Race was at Hamsterley Forest on Sunday 12th; Tony Hewson finished in 25th place with a time of approximately 61 minutes and commented “a long way and a lots of hills, but I’ll be back”.

There were five Harriers in the Harewood Races on the same day - four of them in the very hilly 2-mile Hop, advertised as a Junior Race and Senior Fun Run. Philip Fitzpatrick finished 1st in a very creditable time of 11:34; Scarlett Gray was 8th overall and 1st Junior Girl, one place ahead of twin-sister Jessica with their mother Joanna, reprising her 2002 performance, finishing 4th Female and 1st Senior. This year, raceaholic husband Shane Gray elected to run in the 10-mile Trail race; he had a good run on a similarly hilly course and equalled the time he ran in the Swale Fell Rescue 10 with a 68:40 clocking.

New member Paul Scott travelled to Carlisle to compete in the Great Cumbrian Run Half Marathon on the same Sunday. The race was won in 66:04 by Ethiopian Kassa Tadesse, running for Belgrave Harriers but better known for his 8th place in last year’s Great North Run. There were several personnel from RAF Leeming taking part as well as Paul and, although not a prolific racer, his time of 92.35 and his 141st place from 799 finishers were his best ever at the distance.

NYSD Cross Country Relays 12th October 2003

Much closer to home, the Harriers NYSD winter season got underway with the X-C Relays at Eastbourne Sports Complex, Darlington on Sunday 12th - seven races around the mostly flat perimeter of the football fields, 3 x 1 mile for all but the Men who had 4 x 2 mile to contest. There were winning performances from the Veteran Men and from the Under 15 Girls plus a fastest individual leg in the Under 13 Boy’s race from Douglas Roberts but the Club couldn’t manage to regain the Aggregate Trophy they won in 2001, finishing in 4th place with 35 points, 3 points behind winners Newton Aycliffe AC. RZH performances: Under 13 Boys - Rory Wadsworth 7:04 & Douglas Roberts 6:04 = incomplete team; Under 13 Girls - Leanne Shaw 7:21, Francesca Fowden 7:18 & Rosie Adams 6:55 = 6th team; Men - A team, Paul Roberts 12:38, Shaun Purkiss 12:17, Jon Orange 11:11 & Brian McNabb 12:32 = 5th overall & 1st Veteran team and winners of the Bob Pocklington Trophy; B team, Mike Brooks 12:52, Taff Rogers 13:10, Jim Robinson 13:24 & Dan Brooks 14:52 = 11th team; Ladies - A team, Sarah Gregory 7:05, Fiona Hughes 6:38 & Louise Jackson 6:12 = 5th team; B team, Sadie Potter 7:28, Leah Jackson 7:31 & Jenny Fenwick 8:53 = 9th & 3rd Under 17 Girl’s team; Under 15 boys - Chris Andrade 5:59 & Titch Robinson 6:50 = incomplete team; Under 15 Girls - Sophie Broadway 6:49, Jessie Roberts 6:31 & Jo Adams 6:28 = 1st team and winners of the New Marske Harriers Trophy.