Cross Country Relays Darlington 9th October 2005

This Winter’s Cross-Country Season for the Athletics Clubs in the region started at 12 noon on Sunday 9th October with the NYSD X-C Relays, hosted by Darlington Harriers at Eastbourne Sports Complex and, with 255 runners representing 13 Clubs there were just 3 fewer competing this year. The Harriers had teams in six out of the eleven races contested and came home with two winning teams and two fastest laps but missed the big prize - the Aggregate Trophy, awarded for the best overall score - finishing 3rd behind Darlington and M&C.

Mike Brooks

The Under 13 Boys were first off and there was a flying start for RZH when Marc Scott came home first, with a 6 second lead, his 5:36 proving to be the fastest time in the race. Thomas Allen ran his lap in 6:00 exactly and added 5 seconds to the margin over 2nd place Scarborough. He handed over to Sam Wood who had an inspired run on his debut. Sam was all-but-spent when he came back onto the home field, his lead was being eroded with every stride until Fiona Hughes, his Team Manager, shouted her encouragement and the cheers were taken-up by footballers who had finished their matches - his head came up and he seemed to grow another size, his stride became determined and suddenly he didn’t look beaten. With the finishing line in sight and in a cauldron of noise, he gave a final push; the Scarborough runner had left it too late and Sam crossed the line first by just 1 second, to the absolute delight of his team mates and those watching.

The Veteran Men gave the Club it’s second winning team in another very competitive race with 27 teams lined-up for the combined Under 17, Junior, Senior and Veteran Men’s race. Jon Orange ran the first leg for the Vets and, although he came in 2nd, he emulated Marc Scott in running a fastest time with 11:17 for 2 laps. He was out-sprinted by a lad 20 years younger, Junior Man Andrew Wiles of Mandale, who then had nobody to hand onto and Shaun Purkiss, second leg runner for the Harriers, had a look of surprise when he realised he had a 16 second lead. Only only one runner overhauled Shaun and that was Ricky Stevenson of NMH, an international with great promise for London 2012, but he’s an U17 and their race was over 3 legs and so he maintained first place. Ian Scott had a solid run on third leg and whilst the gap narrowed to 12 seconds, it was the Seniors from HBR in 2nd and Darlington, the next Vets team, were 25 seconds down. Chris Peacock got to run the glory leg and although Mark Armstrong of HBR overtook him, he anchored the team to a convincing victory and medals all round.

RZH results: U13B (3x1 mile) Marc Scott 5:36, Thomas Allen 6:00 & Sam Wood 5:56 = 17:32 & 1st team; U13G (3x1 mile) Amy Coulson 6:42, Kerry Robson 8:28 & Rachel Holloway 7:08 = 22:18 & 6th team; U15G (3x1 mile) Rosie Adams 6:17, Leanne Shaw 6:48 & Ruth Hill 6:25 = 19:30 & 4th team; Senior Men (4x2 miles) Nick Zissler 11:03, Josh Miers 10:44, Mike Brooks 12:13 & Taff Rogers 11:39 = 45:39 & 2nd team; Veteran Men (4x2 miles) Jon Orange 10:17, Shaun Purkiss 11:18, Ian Scott 11:12 & Chris Peacock 11:22 = 44:09 & 1st team; Senior Women (3x2 miles) “A” team - Katie Roberts 13:48, Cara Penfold 13:41 & Jo Adams 13:27 = 40:56 & 6th team; “B” team - Paula Copeland 13:47, Fiona Hughes 13:56 & Jenny Fenwick 15:26 = 43:09 & 8th team; total = 58 points.

Honolulu - ITU JAL Group Triathlon

Meanwhile, on the same day, half a world away in Honolulu, Rich Hunt was competing in the ITU JAL Age Group Triathlon World Championship and what a day he had. Rich was in good shape going into the event having prepared thoroughly with his Coach, Ray Butters, and having raced well beforehand but things didn’t go quite as planned. The first discipline is a 1500m swim and Rich was well below his best, swimming 24:58 and coming out of the water in 72nd place, 4 minutes behind the leaders. Spurred by this unforeseen, inexplicable and seemingly hopeless start, he then produced one of his best-ever second phases in the 40K bike ride and capped that with the second fastest run of the day, 33:48 for 10K to finish 6th M30-34 - 6th best in the world!