Northern Cross Country Champs 25th January 2003

Richmond and Zetland Harriers had competitors in nine out of ten races in the Northern X-C Championships on Saturday 25th January at Heaton Park, Manchester. They also had teams in three of the races and, given the distance to be travelled and week in/week out racing, this was an excellent turn-out.

Arguably the best result of the day for the Club was the under 13 girls team finishing in 8th place with 198 points. The winners, East Cheshire Harriers & Tameside AC scored 110 points and, like the other six Club teams in between, Stockport, Liverpool, Hull, Leeds, Warrington and Lincoln, have a much larger population to recruit from. Richmond, Northallerton, Bedale, Leyburn and all the villages should be proud of the team, the athletes, coaches and parents who all share in this result.

Heaton Park was an excellent venue for the Championships with a hilly, switchback course that suited both competitors and spectators and good support facilities.

The under 17 boys got the programme under way and Nick Zissler, absent through injury for six months of last year, had his third race in four weeks and finished the 6K course in 52nd place.

Race two featured the under 13 girls over 3K and 5 Harriers toed the line. Although Scarlett Gray, Jo Adams and Jessica Gray were never with the gang of three who sped away from the off, they were always in the pack and finished in 32nd, 39th and 40th places. The competitiveness of the race was obvious when looking at the times; 51 girls finished within a minute of the 4th placed girl. Sophie Broadway was fourth counter, forty seconds behind Jessica but down to 87th place and Rosie Adams finished just six seconds later, down to 99th place but ahead of 72 other runners.

Philip Fitzpatrick was a lone Harrier but a popular one as his “Fan Club” cheered his 33rd place finish in the under 15 boys race.

The Senior Ladies were short on numbers but had a longer 8K course to overcome and, without Andrea Woodvine (competing in the Junior Ladies race), Rachel Robinson and others, there wasn’t a team. Louise Jackson put her University finals aside to finish 39th, one place ahead of friend and rival, Maxine Czarnecka of Scarborough and sixteen places ahead of Carolyn Summersgill of M&C who had beaten her at Acklam the previous week. Club Coach, Fiona Hughes was equally determined and finished in 176th place.

The second Harriers’ team was in the under 15 girls race - they finished 11th, again behind a host of big town/big city Clubs. Jessie Roberts, a year younger than many of her rivals, couldn’t maintain her winning streak, wasn’t able to keep with the leading girls and finished in 16th place. Georgina Zissler and Jade Cawthray were second and third counters in 75th and 78th places; Leah Jackson and Ashleigh Robinson were 100th and 105th respectively.

Douglas Roberts is also a year-young as an under 13 boy and, in a race as competitive as the same age girls, he finished 27th, just 55 seconds behind the winner.

Amy Baines lost her under 17 team mates to Saturday jobs and the like but wasn’t deterred - she finished 37th, one place behind Anna Kirby of Mandale, recent winner of the National ATC X-C Championships.

The eighth race was the biggest race of the day and a massive field of close to 800 runners lined-up in their pens, across the length of a football pitch, for the traditional charge to the first corner. Jon Orange chose to race although most of the RZH “A” team had other commitments and was first counter in 72nd place. Jon wasn’t happy to finish almost two minutes down on leading Vet, Rob Hand of Durham City, who may line-up against him in the London marathon this April but his new sponsorship from Peacocks of Richmond will provide fresh impetus. Second counter Ken Harker has never been a mudlark, preferring the track but knowing the benefits of X-C to his strength training, and finished 189th. Shaun Purkiss raced with a large dressing on a finger on his left hand, evidence of an accident while splitting logs, was third counter in 340th place. Shaun did just enough to stay ahead of Paul Roberts and Jim Robinson, who enjoyed their own mini-race, with Paul hanging-on to win 416 to 424 with just nine seconds and sixteen years between them. Neil Piper was rewarded for his loyalty to the cause by making the scoring team as sixth counter. Neil finished in 639th place ahead of another 71 runners; he was 19 minutes behind the winner Chris Carriss of Bingley, but nearly 23 minutes ahead of the last man who shall remain anonymous. The team finished 39th.

The Club’s last runner was Andrea Woodvine in the Junior Ladies race over 6K. Andrea has been training and racing consistently whilst at Nottingham University but the extra kilometre of an Area Championship told and she slipped out of the top ten to finish 14th - the highest individual place of the day.