Bupa Great North Run

Report: Phil McCann -

Sarah Lomas

Sarah Lomas ran a personal best with 1-25-24

Once again those who managed to get into the Great North Run were well rewarded. For the women we had 3 of them in the elite field Jenny Knass, Sarah Lomas and Emma Hampson who was just moving up to the longer distances.

All were easily spotted in the somewhat limited elite field but they gave a good account of themselves.

Jenny Knass’ previous best of 1-22-16 and her best time at GNR back in 2005 was 1-25-42, these were to be smashed as she ran a terrific time of 1-20-23 even be the first Harrier home just ahead of Neil Thompson. To add to that she was 16th woman overall and 8th British woman.

Likewise Sarah Lomas was 3rd Harrier and having a best of 1-27-18 and previous GNR in 2007 of 1-27-46 she clocked 1-25-24 to be 20th woman overall and 12th British woman.

Emma Hampson 4th Harrier home having only run one ½ marathon before in 2005 in over 2 hours as a fun runner. This time she ran competitively and clocked a fantastic 1-29-33 to finish 23rd woman overall and 15th British woman.

Next female Harrier home was Alison Coulson who was not only to run a personal best of 1-37-33 but also to break the Club’s women’s V45 Record which stood at 1-38-00, obviously following in her daughters’ success.

Next was Jayne Lawton even with having a little health problem ran tremendously to clock 1-44-33. Sally Wood was close on her heals and clocked 1-49-06.

Jane O'Hara was attempting to break the 2 hour barrier but just missed out to clock 2-02-58 yet finish ahead of me. I had little training running up to the event due to UK Sport commitments was able to run it sensibly and only faded in the last few miles with a time of 2-10-02 not bad!

Others were Nicola Barrett with a personal best of 2-13-06, Claire Bennett another personal best 2-19-22, Victoria Healey 2-19-35, Heather Cairns 2-24-26 and finally Sheila Whittle also a personal best of 2-29-00.

Congratulations to them all.


Lloyds TSB squad getting into shape for winter fixtures

Report: Dave Turnbull - 7/10/08

The Stockport Harriers’ Lloyds TSB Endurance Squad are back in training for this season’s cross and road races after their end of season track break.

The squad’s seniors and juniors have had some good results in the road relays and local road races.

GB internationals Steve Vernon, Elle Baker and Peter Riley all competed at the Ron Hill 5k Birthday Road Race with a win for Steve and a good comeback win for Elle in her first race for the Harriers.

Steve will be pushing for a place at the European Cross Country Championships in Brussels in December.

Pete Riley also won his first road race in Wales in the Mold 10k with Jamie Loxam 2nd.

Pete has had a longer than normal break and has his sights are on a place in the GB team for the World Championships in Berlin in August.

Another new squad member Jenny Knass has improved her bests over 5k,10k and the half marathon in preparation for the Dublin Marathon at the end of the month.

Jenny has been using the shorter races to hone her fitness for Dublin and finished a creditable 16th position in the Great North on Sunday in 1-20-23 taking nearly 2 minutes from her previous best.

The junior squad team are also looking forward to the cross season.

UK 3k bronze medallist Jack Nixon flew around the Northern Road Relays at Croxteth Park, Liverpool on Sunday and was fourth individual fastest athlete of the day in the under-15 boys’ race.

Hannah Coulson ran the fastest time on first leg of the under-15 girls’ race.

The under-17 men’s team of Jack Morris, Nathan Ludlain and Harry Long finished sixth team. Jack Morris was 10th fastest individual on the day

The junior Lloyds TSB squad led by coaches Peter and Mike Nixon will attend the annual British Milers Club training and educational camp in Northampton in November.

Past attendees of the training weekend over the years have included many British middle distance legends who learnt their trade at the squad weekends including Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Paula Radcliffe, Peter Elliot and many more.

Squad coach David Turnbull said “I am so pleased that Mike and Pete are carrying on the tradition of taking young up-and-coming athletes to the training camp, they will benefit so much from the knowledge on offer.”


Club Track & Field Championships

The Club Championships saw a good turn out with over 140 entries and some exciting races.

There were 2 new club records with Rory Evans breaking the junior 100 metre record with 10.79 and David Thomson, Michael Logue, Jack Morris and Nathan Ludlan recording 8-48.2 for the under-17s’ 4 × 800 metres.

The medals will be awarded at the Presentation Evening.


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