First home for the club was Jonathan Dabbs in 2-37-50. Photo from Flickr
Stockport Harriers had over 30 finishers in the Flora London Marathon with Jonathan Dabbs first home for the club in 2 hours 37 minutes. Also breaking 3 hours were Kevin Beattie, Tony Lee and Steve Jones plus good first time performances from Lee Barratt and Neil Thompson both beating 3 hours 30 minutes.
Jenny Knass in only her second marathon ran a personal best by a huge 30 minutes to record 3-00-48, finishing 80th lady and 28th in her category.
Kerrie Wood returned from having her 3rd child and with limited training for a time of 3-04-22 to finish 104th lady and 24th in her category.
Next Samantha Thomas and Sharon Glendon were virtually neck and neck and both knocked 6 minutes of their personal bests, Samantha 3-34-19 and Sharon 3-37-04.
Also recording personal bests were Vicky Buckley, Ruth Lee, Liz Bowden, Nicola Logue plus Karen McCrackle, Belinda Wells, Gill Thompson and Sarah Thorpe completing their first marathon.
Second claim member Peter Riley (right) had set his sights on running the qualifying time of 2.16 for this year's European Championships in Gothenburg but produced a brilliant debut run inside the mark recording 2-14-31 to finish 12th and first Briton home.
The Mellor based runner who shares digs and trains with Harriers' Cross Country GB man Steve Vernon and his girlfriend 2-01 800 metre runner Becky Lynn, breezed through the half marathon mark in 67-30 and ran the second half even faster in 67-01.
Pete who is the reigning AAA's 10 mile road and 10k Champion added the AAA's marathon title in what has been his best year competing since returning from the States.
Overall Position |
Gender Position |
Name | Age | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
162 | (150) | JONATHAN DABBS | M35 | 2:37:50 |
553 | (534) | KEVIN BEATTIE | M35 | 2:50:16 |
1109 | (1042) | TONY AUDENSHAW | M40 | 2:58:49 |
1169 | (1100) | STEPHEN JONES | M40 | 2:59:19 |
1279 | (78) | JENNY KNASS | W25 | 3:00:48 |
1524 | (102) | KERRIE WOOD | W40 | 3:04:22 |
1585 | (1472) | ADRIAN ARBOUR | M35 | 3:05:14 |
1891 | (1746) | SIMON HEYS | M45 | 3:08:30 |
2729 | (2492) | STEPHEN ESPLIN | M25 | 3:15:48 |
3494 | (3149) | LEE BARRATT | M35 | 3:21:53 |
3637 | (3263) | NEIL THOMPSON | M35 | 3:23:07 |
4117 | (3670) | JAMES SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH | M25 | 3:26:29 |
4641 | (4104) | DAVID SMITH | M60 | 3:29:19 |
5004 | (4387) | SEAN WHEWELL | M40 | 3:31:21 |
5497 | (705) | SAMANTHA THOMAS | W30 | 3:34:19 |
6003 | (802) | SHARON GLENDON | W30 | 3:37:04 |
8599 | (1341) | VICTORIA BUCKLEY | W35 | 3:49:10 |
9641 | (1546) | ROSALIND MANN | W50 | 3:53:16 |
9712 | (1559) | RUTH LEE | W30 | 3:53:34 |
11691 | (9676) | RICHARD YORK | M30 | 3:59:54 |
11783 | (2041) | JANE LAWTON | W35 | 4:00:14 |
12025 | (2100) | ELIZABETH A BOWDEN | W35 | 4:01:21 |
12973 | (2337) | NICOLA LOGUE | W40 | 4:05:42 |
13445 | (2452) | KAREN MCCRAKLE | W25 | 4:07:47 |
17850 | (14169) | FRANK MILLS | M35 | 4:25:07 |
18712 | (14713) | VINCENT HOLLAND | M70 | 4:28:22 |
20619 | (15977) | JOHN DELANY | M60 | 4:36:13 |
20722 | (4674) | BELINDA WELLS | W40 | 4:36:41 |
23722 | (17954) | COLIN S COHEN | M50 | 4:50:18 |
25735 | (19164) | NEIL MASON | M45 | 5:00:13 |
25736 | (19165) | RONALD WILKINSON | M50 | 5:00:13 |
26789 | (7020) | GILLIAN THOMPSON | W40 | 5:07:52 |
30561 | (8785) | SARAH THORPE | W18 | 5:45:58 |
Steve on the medal trail
Steve Vernon easily won his first race on the trails as he prepares for this year's European Mountain Running Championships in July.
He finished the Hawkshead 15km trail race in the Lake District over 45 seconds ahead of Altrincham's Nick Leigh after deciding to go hard from the start.
Steve is hoping to gain selection for the European Mountain Championships which take place in Czechoslovakia in July, after finishing 4th last year he will be chasing a medal.
Jess 9th in the World Schools' Cross Country
Jess Coulson ended her cross country season in style by finishing 9th representing England in the World Schools' International Cross Country Championships in Rimini, Italy.
The race was won by Chinese athlete Lvxin Zhang, Jess finished in 12-05 hot on the heels of Eleanor Sprake, also of England in 12-03 and Australian runner Chloe Tighe 12-04.
The England team were just edged out of the team awards finishing 4th.
Jess will be back in action next weekend in the London Mini Marathon with her Harriers' team mates Leah Kay, Lucy McLoughlin, Ross Millington and Andy Nixon who are all running for Greater Manchester against the top eight counties in the London Marathon endurance initiative race that runs the last 3 miles of the famous course.
Also a big turnout of Harriers is expected at the Mow Cop Killer Mile on the 27th April an uphill road race that is a good early test for the track season. Entries are taken on the night for children's races right up to veteran's category races.
National 6-stage Road Relay Championships
The National 6-stage Road Relays as usual were held at Sutton Park in Birmingham and gives a good bench mark on how individual athletes are progressing when competing against the best competition in the country.
Despite injury, illness and other withdrawals taking their toll the club managed to field a time with a few dependable runners and a couple of very welcomed new faces.
Jenny Knass ran the first leg with the fastest time for the Harriers since we started the event in 2003 with 18-20.
On the 2nd stage was Vicky Barrett matching her best the previous year in 20-12.
Sharon Glendon ran the 3rd leg knocking 30 seconds of her time from last year with 20-43.
4th leg Karen McCrackle with another personal best of 2 minutes in 20-22.
5th leg was Debbie Cox on her 1st outing and the first time over this distance in 24-22.
Finally the 6th leg was Jenny Day having competed at the Northerns 3 weeks earlier made much improvement in a time of 24-56 for us to finish 40th out of 62 teams.
A huge vote of thanks to all these ladies for supporting this event as well as profiling the club.