Yorkshire XC Championships - Nunroyd Park Guiseley 3rd January 2004

Richmond and Zetland Harriers had 24 athletes compete in the 8 races of the Yorkshire X-C Championships at Nunroyd Park, Guiseley on Saturday 3rd and they came back with individual silver and bronze medals plus a fourth team place. There were signs of the old Nick Zissler showing with his 2nd place in the under 17 men’s race; Douglas Roberts was 3rd in the under 13 boys race and won his second County X-C medal and the Senior Ladies finished just out of the medals in 4th, the identical place to last year. The Championships were at Nunroyd Park in 2003 but this year there was hardly any snow on the park and the going was mostly firm although the “path” through the woods provided one or two tricky moments.

U13 Boys Team

The under 13 girls started the day’s racing at 11.10 am with one small lap and 3K in total. Rosie Adams was first home for the Club in 23rd place; Jane Thornton and Leanne Shaw finished in 57th and 58th places respectively and the 3-to-score team were 9th.

All the boy’s races are 4-to-score, a legacy from the days when there were separate Championships, and the under 13 boys finished 6th with 108 points, just 11 points behind Leeds City AC who claimed 3rd place and bronze team medals. Douglas Roberts ran in his customary dogged fashion despite a sore knee, determined not to miss out on a medal and a place in the Yorkshire team at the Inter-Counties Championships at Nottingham next month. Behind him, Tom Osborn was 20th, Rory Wadsworth 37th and Niall Scott 48th - a terrific showing from three first-year Harriers.

Senior Ladies Race

There was a big blow to the Club’s fortunes in the under 15 girl’s race when Jessie Roberts pulled-up injured, putting her Inter-Counties place in jeopardy but, more importantly with several youngsters missing, leaving the team one short. Jessie was up with the leaders in the opening stages of the large loop but looked uncomfortable and wisely called it a day and dropped-out before she did too much damage. Back in the pack, Jo Adams was having a tough afternoon but hung-in well and came good, finishing 35th with Katie Roberts enjoying her company and finishing 2 places behind.

Chris Andrade has become accustomed to being a lone Harrier in the under 15 boy’s races this winter but enjoys the consolation of maximum support from his Club mates. Chris completed the 4.5K course in 46th place, happy to get all the way round after his dnf in 2003.

Moving-up in distance is never easy and Georgina Zissler, another single entry, this time in the under 17 girl’s race, was similarly pleased with the result of her first-year Championship endeavours, finishing in 11th place.

Paul Roberts

Nick Zissler and Philip Fitzpatrick competed in the under 17 men’s race and both were in the mix throughout the 6K. Nick and Alistair Brownlee of Bradford Grammar have run against each other many times in both School and Club competition since Nick won the Yorkshire under 13 boy’s X-C Championships at Rotherham in 1999 but this time it was Alistair’s day, relegating Nick to the runner-up place by just 5 seconds. Nick was happy to finish and be back in the medals after a topsy-turvy year with injuries and Philip voiced similar sentiments in the finishing funnel - 12th place out of 34 finishers in his first-year at the distance.

The Club had four Senior Lady runners toe the line; they too had 6K to run and all gave it their best shot in pursuit of the big city Clubs, well-enough to finish 4th with 59 points, behind Leeds, Wakefield and Holmfirth, but one point ahead of Bingley and Nestle Rowntree of York. Andrea Woodvine and Louise Jackson, half of the Yorkshire Junior Ladies team that won gold at the Inter-Counties two years ago, were always in the top twenty and went on to finish 6th and 16th respectively. Fiona Hughes knocked more than 4 minutes off last year’s time to finish in 37th place and complete the scoring trio and Sarah Gregory, in her Championship debut, was 54th out of 82 finishers.

The Senior Men’s team at County level is 6-to-score and is a selection race for the Inter-Counties which in turn is used to select teams for the World Championships in which Junior Men are under 20 in the year of competition. Scott Wardman turned 20 in September and so ran as a Senior whereas he will run as a Junior in the Northern Championships at the end of this month. This was fortuitous as there were only six Harriers on the start line and all six finished - Ken Harker best again in 42nd place, Scott 51st, Brian McNabb 113th, Paul Roberts (not running as number 232 to avoid the terrorist threat) 117th, Mike Brooks 127th and second-last but never least, Neil Piper anchoring the four Vets team to a creditable 15th place.

Great North XC Run 3rd January 2004

On the same Saturday, Edd Richards opted to compete in the Great North X-C Run at Exhibition Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and was 32nd out of hundreds in the Open Men’s race.