Dresden 10k

Report: Peter Powell -

Jack Nixon

Astounding team success was the order of the day when 18 Stockport Harriers and associates from Manx AC participated in the Dresden 10km race in association with the 9th Morgenpost Dresden half and full marathons.

The youngest competitor in the form of junior international Jack Nixon followed the tram lines well in the pouring rain to the finish and recorded a fine 41st position out of 980 finishers in a time of 37:50 and only 7 seconds behind winning team competitor Willi Hofmann of TSV Dresden. He also managed to keep his distance in front of first vet to finish being club stalwart Mike Shaw in 45th position in 38:03.

Shaw, when asked if he had good prospects in the event was well pleased with his form but quipped "Young Jack was just that too strong for me, I could see him as I turned past the Semper opera house and was closing down on him but just was not on song enough and ran out of meterage!"

Meantime the Harriers team scored a creditable 2nd team position behind TSV Dresden and beating local club LG Pirna who took the third team slot and may go one team position better in next October's international in Munich.

Place Name Cat / Place Time
41 Jack Nixon MS 1 00:37:50
45 Mike Shaw M40 1 00:38:03
47 Dale Gartley M45 1 00:38:08
77 Philip Nixon MJ 15 00:40:32
91 Mike Nixon M45 7 00:41:26
135 Ian Thorpe M45 14 00:43:14
187 Liam Turnbull MJ 26 00:45:47
244 Eric Normansell M65 5 00:46:27
221 John Crabtree M55 7 00:46:59
329 Alan Bagley M50 21 00:49:52
348 Paul Beaver M55 14 00:50:34
656 Jim Herron M55 27 00:55:33
743 Ian Berry M60 16 00:55:54
257 Beryl Normansell W60 1 00:57:17
671 Peter Powell M60 15 00:58:58
663 Dave Turnbull M50 38 00:56:17
834 Mike Boardman M55 45 01:01:54
720 Barbara Bagley W55 21 01:19:33

National Cross Country Relays

Report: Dave Turnbull

The first National event kicked off the domestic cross country season at Mansfield on Saturday and the Harriers had seven teams competing across the age groups.

Four of the teams finishing in the top 20 with the junior women achieving the highest position for the club in 8th.

Individually the club's internationals Jess Coulson was fourth fastest overall in the under-20 women's, Ross Millington was 8th fastest in the under-20 men's and Steve Vernon was 8th fastest in the senior men's.

Senior Men - 5km 27th
S Vernon (3rd) 14.52
M Thiele (24th) 16.25
J Loxam (29th) 16:50
B Hussain (27th) 16.05
Senior Women - 3km 47th
R Chatwin 11.34
E Hampson 11.27
L Brookes 13.10
Junior Women - 2.5km 8th
C Stansfield (25th) 9.24
J Coulson (6th) 8.23
C McMurdock (8th) 9.22
Under-17 Girls - 2.5km 14th
B Pearce (7th) 9.07
S Kay (17th) 10.06
L Kay (14th) 9.30
Junior Men - 3km 14th
A Nixon (14th) 9.11
S Pearson (28th) 10.09
R Millington (14th) 8.56
Under-15 Boys - 2km 17th
J Morris (15th) 6.40
J Nixon (16th) 6.53
H Long (17th) 6.46
Under-15 Girls - 2km 47th
A Hughes (14th) 7.17
S Wilson (53rd) 8.58
R Hetherington (47th) 8.20
Under-17 Boys - 3km 51st
D Thompson (51st) 11.22
N Ludlain (65th) 10.16
M Cooke (51st)  9.25
Full results available at www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk

2007 Annual General Meeting

The 2007 AGM will take place on Monday 26th November in the Club House. Start time will be approximately 8.15pm.

The main features of the meeting are:

Nomination forms for committee members are on the notice board in the club house. All Committee positions are subject to re-election but key roles to be filled due to resignations are Club Treasurer and Men’s Road Running Manager.

2007 Prize Presentation Evening

The 2007 Presentation Evening will take place on Saturday 1st December in Pavilion Suite 2 at the Edgeley Park Football Ground, starting at 7.00pm.

The evening will consist of:

Tickets will be on sale at the shop in the Club House from Tuesday 6th November at £4 each. Admission will be by ticket only and no tickets will be available on the night.


Derbyshire Cross Country Championships

The Derbyshire Cross Country Championships are to be held at Markeaton Park, Derby on Saturday 5th January 2008. Entry forms are now available from the Derbyshire County Athletic Association. Closing date is 10th December 2007.

If anyone wants to enter as part of a bulk club entry should contact Sean Whewell on 07801 135549 or


Manchester Area Cross Country League

Event 1 Results
Under-13 Female
2 OLIVIA WILD 11.13
7 IMOGEN NUTTER 11.51
8 NICOLA BERRY 12.00
9 AIMEE AIKIN 12.15
14 SARAH TIPPING 12.41
16 CARLA EDWARDS 12.57
Under-13 Male
1 RICHARD HINDLEY 11.55
12 JAMES PARROTT 14.28
17 RYAN BULLOWS 18.26
Under-15 Female
1 AMIE HUGHES 12.39
Under-15 Male
3 JACK MORRIS 14.38
5 MICHAEL LOGUE 15.07
13 HARRY LONG 15.27
19 JOSEPH BRIGGS 16.05
21 JACK NIXON 16.10
Under-17 Female
1 LEAH KAY 16.04
9 SARAH KAY 17.48
Under-17 Male
11 LUKE HOBDON 25.19
12 DAVID THOMPSON 25.37
Senior Female
10 RACHEL CHATWIN FV35 1 34.21
29 KAREN McCRACKLE 37.34
31 HELEN GARNER FV35 7 37.44
45 MARYTE MOORE FV45 6 40.04
49 JAYNE LAWTON FV35 9 40.35
63 MARIE KAY 41.55
64 ALEXIS DINSMOR FV55 1 42.00
69 JULIE FAIRCLOUGH FV40 11 42.51
70 MAUREEN WILKINS FV40 12 43.00
91 JANET BOOKER FV50 6 46.21
Senior Male
39 KEVAN GARNER MV40 6 37.44
53 LEN BEST MV55 1 38.15
58 JO CHAMBERS 38.26
61 ADRIAN NUTTER 38.47
96 HUW MORRIS MV45 13 41.58
130 TIM HARGREAVES MV50 13 45.47
150 STEVE FAIRCLOUGH MV40 34 49.15

National Young Athlete Relays

Report: Pete Torrence

Hannah Coulson brought the under-13s team home in 7th

Hannah Coulson brought the under-13s team home in 7th

After taking the the bronze medal in the recent Northern Relays, Stockport Harriers' under-13 girls' team have been improving with each race and at Birmingham's Sutton Park in the English National Road Relays over 3.9km they did themselves proud. The A-team took on 62 teams from all over the country and came 7th behind winners Aldershot & Farnham, with the B-team 22nd.

The 1st leg had Olivia Wild coming home in 10th in 15-09 and Sarah Tipping in 52nd in 17-29 to hand over to Nicola Berry who kept us in touch in 11th place in 16-23 while Aimee Aikin had a great race taking 22 places to move the B-team up to 30th in 15-56, on the last leg Hannah Coulson showed her good form to bring the A-team home 7th in 15-05 while the B-team's Imogen Nutter improving all the time took 8 places in 15-43 to bring the team in at 22nd overall .

With a few runners injured the only other teams out at Birmingham were the under-17 ladies and men, in the ladies' race the 1st leg was run by Sarah Kay to come in at 43rd in 17-02 to hand over to Bryony Pearce who climbed 16 places to take the team to 27th place in 14-39 to hand over to Leah Kay who took the team to 16th place in 15-01.

On the under-17 men's first leg Michael Cook again had a great run to show what good form he is in to come in 3rd in 12-03 to hand over to David Thomson who kept the team in the race with 14-14 to come in at 36th position to hand over to Nathan Ludlain who took the team to 35th place in 13-24.


Ladies National 4-stage Relays

Ladies 4-stage teams

Report: Phil McCann

Once again Stockport Ladies made new ground by having the maximum 3 full teams compete at the Nationals. The team spirit was very high even though a few were full of colds still managed to compete, although we had make a few adjustments in team selection. Toni McIntosh had flown down from Scotland to the East Midlands the day before and was eager to compete.

The A-team had Toni on 1st leg and in a high quality field she ran a personal best in 16-10 to bring us in 50th place out of 93 teams.

The field on the 1st leg was very much bunched together and when Jess Coulson took over on 2nd leg made up 27 places. To add to this Jess was the fastest runner on 2nd leg clocking 14-22 and 11th fastest overall. Michela Stepto took over on 3rd leg after Rachel Chatwin had to drop down to the B-team being unwell. Michela battled hard and ran close to her best from 2001 in 17-51 placing us 31st overall. Carley Davies on the final leg ran a another personal best from last year to clock 17-28 and we finished 32nd in a time of 1-05-51, only 40 seconds off our best time from last year.

Meanwhile the B & C-teams had nearly everyone running the National 4-stage for the first time and all ran exceptionally well. The B-team was made up of Lois Brooks on 1st leg and even with an injury managed to clock 19-23 and 85th place. Karen McCrackle took over and ran a personal best in 18-36 and 74th place. Vicky Buckley took over on 3rd leg and kept up with those around her to clock 21-06 in 75th place. Rachel Chatwin who was unwell was determined not to let the team down made up 9 places to clock 16-43 to finish 66th in 1-15-48.

Finally the C-team all from Maureen's training group bonded well and battled hard against the like of the B-team being neck-and-neck all the way. Julie was the first leg runner and chased Lois all the way to clock 19-27 and 86th place. Helen Garner then chased Karen and made it look as though she had done this many times before clocking 18-46 in 75th place. Helen Todd on 3rd leg chased and overtook Vicky to clock 19-29 and 72nd place now with the C-team in 2nd place. Maureen in the final leg had a slight lead but was unable to hold off Rachel but battled hard to the finish to clock 20-42 and 71st place in 1-18-24.

As you would expect at the Nationals the standard was very high and Steph Twell ran the fastest time in impressive 13-41 and we are waiting to see if she had broken Paula Radcliff's record. Overall for us a hugely fantastic day with many personal bests. Above a picture of the group although Karen had to shoot off for her parent's wedding anniversary and Jess was still on a cool down! Thanks to everyone who assisted in transport especially Paul for is huge tent and monster vehicle!

A-Team 32nd 1:05:51
Toni McIntosh (50) 16:10
Jess Coulson (23) 14:22
Michela Stepto (31) 17:51
Carley Davies (32) 17:28
B-Team 67th 1:15:48
Lois Brookes (85) 19:23
Karen McCrackle (74) 18:36
Vicky Buckley (75) 21:06
Rachel Chatwin (67) 16:43
C-Team 72nd 1:18:24
J Fairclough (86) 19:27
Jennifer Hopes (75) 18:46
Helen Todd (72) 19:29
Maureen Wilkins (72) 20:42

Toni sets a season's best

Toni McIntosh clocked the fastest time for Stockport Harriers' ladies this year with 36-49, knocking 2 minutes of her season's best in the Denny 10k, Scotland. Toni was piped into second place by the fast Fiona Matheson of Falkirk Harriers in 35-10 after a tough battle.

Toni is slowly coming back to form after a struggling with her training and injuries, she will be competing for Stockport in the National 4-stage road relays next week.


Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships

This year's Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships will be on Saturday 8th December at Heaton Park, Manchester, first event 10-45am.

Men's and under-20s' entries £2 to David Turnbull. Under-17/15/13 boys' entries to Mike or Peter Nixon. Entries close Monday November 26th.


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