HARROGATE HARRIERS YOUNG ATHLETES TRAINING GROUP

At the second West Yorkshire Cross Country League meeting of the season hosted by Skyrac A.C. over at Nunroyd Park in Guiseley last weekend (26 Oct 08) twenty nine young athletes from the Harrogate Harriers junior training group competed. They were spread over the eight age group races except for Jonathan Johnson who had to run in the senior men’s race.

After heavy overnight rain the course was decidedly muddy from the start and became steadily worse as each race was completed, the persistent showers throughout the afternoon didn’t help either.

In the two under 11’s races George Smail made his debut in club colours placing an encouraging second overall in the boys race and Lucy Ireland a positive fourth in the girl’s race.

For the under 13’s girls team Harriet Smail was once again the first counter and she improved on her finishing position from the first event at Otley crossing the line in fifth place. Supporting Harriet in the team were Ciara Martin and Ellen Brown, the pair finding the going very tough but they completed the race nonetheless. Dan Moulson (18th) again lead the under 13’s boys team across the finish line, he improved on his Otley position by four places as did the team itself, from eighth to fourth. Second counter was Lewis Bramley (22nd) followed by new member Lawrence Hargreaves (29th) and Will Havercroft (34th). Also running for the team were Luke Harrison and other new members Luke Harrison and George Bolton.

The under 15’s girls and boys teams both got higher finishing positions at Guiseley. Leading girl was once again Caroline Lambert in third place and she was accompanied by Ellie MacLeod (28th), Ellie Smith (29th) and Kate Hunt (32nd). Even though Harrogate and Halifax Harriers finished with the same points from their four scoring runners it was Fraser Birtwistle in twenty first place that gave Harrogate the edge having a higher finishing position than the fourth counter from Halifax . Dan Coupland and Tom Moulson followed each other across the line in ninth and tenth place respectively followed very closely by George Hinchcliffe in thirteenth place. The other team members were Jonathan Bell, Tom Warren and Jack Bowen.

Unfortunately for the under 17’s girls team Rebecca Turner wasn’t able to run on the day and the other two girls who had entered the League didn’t turn up, consequently the positive efforts from Kath Coupland (2nd) and Carolina Blane (5th) only counted on an individual basis. A quality field in the under 17’s boys event ensured a good workout for the Harrogate team of Alex Rhodes (9th), Dan Cheeseman (23rd) and Adam Coulwell (25th).

Finally in his first West Yorkshire League cross country for at least three years Jonathan Johnson is unfortunately out of the age group races and had to run with the senior men. It didn’t help that an on course marshal made a mistake early in the race and instead of running three large laps all the field, including Jonathan, ran four large laps!!! However Jonathan competed exceedingly well and was fifth counter for the Harrogate senior team quite a performance for the eighteen year old.

It is encouraging to note that so far over the two West Yorkshire League races forty one athletes from the training group have raced.