Great Manchester Run

On a wet Sunday Morning 2,5000 Runners lined up for the Great Manchester Run 10k with a line of famous internationals such as Geta Wami, Benita Johnson and Berhand Adhere in the women's field.

Once again Stockport Harrier's women were to the forefront of this race. With Jenny Knass and Kerrie Wood amongst the Elite Women's Field we also followed up with the bulk of the ladies running in the first wave the Orange numbers.

Jenny Murray who has been out through illness these last three months returned and decided to run in the mass field. However she showed her true talent yet again and ran a personal best to record 36-23 and finish in the top 5 British women in the race.

Jenny Knass followed up recording 38-40 close to her personal best and Helen Hudson 39-48, a new distance for her. We had a huge field of over 25 ladies with one after another finishing close together!

Kerrie Wood, Estelle McGuire, Vicky Barrett and Sally Keigher were all getting back to form. They were then followed up by Joanna Robertson and Sharon Glendon both with personal bests and Samantha Thomas in toe. Alice Dagg after injury which had kept her out for 6 weeks returned to clock a personal best with Toni & Laura McIntosh, Alison Coulson and Karen McCrackle hot on her heels.

The next group of ladies Jenny Hope, Maryte Moore, Jane Cocks, Jayne Lawton Ruth Lee and Debra McCann have been training hard together and most came away with personal bests.

Some of the new ladies to the club have been making good improvements, Jenny Day has come from over the hour to 50 minutes. Coach Maureen Wilkins after so much time out of running return with fervour to clock 57 minutes.

So once again we have another huge increase in personal bests and 2 Club Records broken for the 10k in both the Vet 40 (Kerrie Wood) and Vet 45 (Alison Coulson).

Juniors hit form

Stockport's middle distance athletes displayed some good form before next weekend's Northern Championships.

Jess Coulson recorded a massive improvement with 9-30.3 in the 3,000 metres at the Trafford Grand Prix meeting last Tuesday to go top of the UK U17 3,000m rankings by over 15 seconds. Steve Vernon won the men's race in 8-06.31.

Meanwhile at the same meeting Ross Millington continued where he finished off last season with a 3-55.32 in the 1,500 metres, putting him top of the UK U17 1,500m rankings.

Seniors make a good start

Report: Vicki Robinson

Ben Styles scored and 800 and 400 metre double.

The Harriers began their campaign to gain promotion to Division 2 of the Northern League on Saturday, and following a Sunny afternoon in Warrington, things are looking very hopeful.

The combined men’s and ladies' team finished in second place overall, an agonising 7 points behind St. Helens Sutton AC.

There were a few new faces on the team this year. Youngster Rory Evans made his debut for the senior team and scored maximum points in both sprints in the B-event, recording a very nippy 23.5 seconds in the 200 metres. At the other end of the age spectrum M55 athlete Len Best ran well in the B-string 5,000 metres to win in 17 minutes exactly.

Helen Hudson was making her first appearance for the ladies' team, and did so in style, running strongly to place 2nd in the 1,500 metres, and was agonisingly close to breaking the 5 minute barrier with 5.00.1. The ladies were helped significantly by the appearance of our two new throwers Carmen Martinez and Hayley Dugan. Carmen took maximum points in both the hammer and discus, whilst Hayley was victorious in the shot-putt, as well as the B-string discus.

There were also some notable performances by some more familiar athletes. Ben Styles took maximum points in the 800 metres with 1.57.1 minutes before cruising to an easy victory in the 400 metres. Both Chris Heskeths were competing as usual, Chris senior placed 2nd in the high jump with 1.70 metres, while Chris junior jumped 11.34 metres in the triple jump to place 2nd.

There were two outstanding performances in the ladies' competition. 15-year-old Charlotte Hesketh smashed her personal best to leap to 5.30 metres in the long jump, her first 5 metre jump ever.

On the track Claire McMurdock (right) stormed to victory in the 400 metres recording a personal best of 58.1 seconds, this was after she had already made light work of winning the 800 metres.

The team rounded off the day in fine form winning 3 out of the 4 relay races, with the men placing second to St. Helens in the 4 x 100 metres.

The ladies' 4 x 400 metre team produced perhaps the best relay performance winning their race by a full 14 seconds!

Let’s hope we can go one place better in the next competition on June 3rd!

• Full match results

Young athletes start season with a win

Jessica Yates and Kelly Blackman take the honors in the under-17s sprint

The track season started well for Stockport Harriers' young athletes in the National Young Athletes' Track and Field League at Woodbank Park, Stockport with a great win over rivals Wrexham AC.

With the team missing a lot of athletes due to injuries there was some outstanding performances in both the boys and girls teams.

Sprinter Rory Evans took first place in the under-17 men's 100 and 200 metres with 11.9 and 23.4 seconds, while Ben Lawton won the under-13 boys' 200 metres in 29.6 seconds.

In the middle distance events the under-13 boys did themselves proud with Jamie Henderson and Liam Ludlain taking first places in both the 'A' and 'B' 800 metre races and in the 1,500 metres Richard Hindley taking second place in the 'A' race with Jack Nixon winning the 'B' race.

The girls' team started the season with wins in the sprints from Jessica Yates, Jenny Bauer and Kelly Blackman in the under-17s, Georgina Wilkins in the under-15s and second places in the under-13s for Oliva Yates and Hannah McCabe.

Meanwhile the middle distance girls had wins for Rachel Malbon in the 800 metres and two outstanding runs by Sarah Kay to win both the under-17s 3,000 & 1,500 metres and under-15s wins by Michelle Wiblin and Charlotte Barber in the 1,500 metres and Kirsty Evans in the 800 metres. The under-13s age group saw wins for Hannah Coulson and Danielle Leith in the 800 metres and in the 1,200 metres Imogen Nutter just missed out to Wrexham's athlete to finish second in the 'A' race and Samatha Wilson winning the 'B' race .

Next match at Ellesmere Port on Saturday May 20th.