A healthy contingent of Stockport Harriers donned their triathlon gear to take part in the St Annes Triathlon on Sunday 18th May, success came by the bucket load with medals galore and a limelight stealing result from Maureen Wilkins.
Grace Garner produced a fantastic effort to be placed first in Tristar category for 8-year-olds. And given how she blasted out onto the run, there is a lot more to come from this talented athlete.
In the next age category, covering 9 and 10-year-olds, Katie Huane came an excellent 5th producing another great run time to move up the field.
The 11 and 12-year-olds also acquitted themselves very well. In the girls Carla Edwards was placed 3rd on the day with a very good run time, and Carla Aikin was placed 5th on the day with a great all round performance. In the boys category William Garner was unable to match his sisters performance coming in 4th – with a proper bike there is a huge amount of improvement to come from William. Thomas Huane also did very well to be placed 9th in the category.
In the 13 and 14-year-old age group, despite doing an unexpected bit of extra biking thanks to a marshalling error, Aimee Aikin showed her undoubted talent to be placed 7th and having the best run time by over 90 seconds on a 2.4km course. Hannah Wilkins also performed creditably to be placed 13th overall.
In the grown-up category Maureen Wilkins stole the show by winning the Veteran Women’s category with a great all round performance to beat her nearest competitor by over 2 minutes 30 seconds. All those tips from Kevan Garner seem to have really paid off! Julie Aikin, despite not wanting to do it, was placed a very creditable 6th in her age category, whilst Helen Garner came 10th overall despite deciding to do an extra bit of biking because she was enjoying it all so much. In the Men’s competition, Kevan Garner put all his hard training to good effect to finish 3rd in his age category leaving myself trailing behind in 6th place in the same age category.
All-in-all the Harriers’ athletes showed their all round capability with the run times being exceptional across all categories, a real testament to the quality of coaching at the Club. There is clearly some great developing all round talent amidst the Harriers on show, but the great plaudits must be reserved for Maureen who continues to impress everyone with all her hard work and commitment.
Club records for Ross and Ben
Report: Dave Turnbull - 19/5/2008
The Harriers’ leading middle distance athletes Ross Millington and Ben Styles competed at two of the weekend’s big track & field meetings.
On Saturday evening at Watford Ben competed at the first of the British Milers Club’s Grand Prix meetings.
Racing in the 800 metres, Ben finished 4th in 1-52.49 equalling his own junior club, record breaking the long standing senior 800 metre record in the process, which was previously held by Nick Watkins whose son Greg has also been breaking club records recently.
On Sunday Ross Millington ran in the Loughborough 1,500 metres invitation race and won emphatically in a new junior club record of 3-47.64.
Slicing a healthy chunk off his own previous best of 3-49.47 which he set last year.
Ross won the race after sprinting away from Birchfield Harriers’ Tom Penfold in the last 120 metres winning by a clear 10 metres.
He will race for the England team at the St Mary’s Classic Meet in London on June the 4th along with Ben who is a student at St Mary’s the UK Endurance Centre.
Before that they will both compete at the 2nd of the British Milers Grand Prix events held at SportCity stadium in Manchester on May 31st.
They will be joined by group training partner Becky Lyne who has her first outing of the season at 1,500 metres along with other members of the squad.
Derbyshire Track & Field Championships
Report: Isaac - 12/5/2008
Only a handful of Stockport Harriers athletes are able to qualify for the Derbyshires or 'Hillbilly games' as I've heard them called recently (most club members take part in Cheshire or Greater Manchester equivalent).
This year’s Championships were no different with only four athletes braving the scorching sunshine over the two day event - the medal haul was impressive though with five golds and one silver.
Performance of the weekend with a double sprint gold went to Rory Evans with 10.9 in the 100m and a new Championship best of 21.9 in the 200m. Stuart Cameron also won gold in the Junior 800m in 1:58.4. Amber Whewell won silver on the Saturday in the 3000m and went one better on the Sunday with gold in the U20 2000m steeplechase - not to be outdone her dad Sean Whewell won the senior mens 3000m steeplechase in his first track race since he was 14.
| Name | Age group | Event | Time | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rory Evans | JM | 100m | 10.9 | 1 |
| Rory Evans | JM | 200m | 21.9 | 1* |
| Stuart Cameron | JM | 800m | 1:58.4 | 1 |
| Amber Whewell | U17 | 3000m | 12:22 | 2 |
| Amber Whewell | U20 | 2000m s/c | 8:54 | 1 |
| Sean Whewell | SEN | 5000m | 19:04 | 4 |
| Sean Whewell | SEN | 3000m s/c | 12:13 | 1 |
| *New championship record | ||||
Another Club record to Greg Watkins
Greg Watkins notched up another Stockport Harriers’ senior record when winning the Discus at the Woodbank Park Northern Athletics’ League match. Greg threw the 2.0kg discus 41.82 metres breaking the old record by nearly a metre and setting the second longest throw with the senior weight in the UK so far this year by a junior.
This followed a good opening to the season the previous weekend when Greg competed in the National Junior League for his second claim club Sale Harriers. Greg won the U20 Discus with a throw of 43.60 metres to head the North West rankings on www.powerof10.info. He also won the U20 shot with a personal best of 13.39 metres. His main targets this year are the English Schools Championships and to get closer to 45 metres with the discus.
3rd Thursday 5 km Time Trials
This summer sees the return of these events in Woodbank Park starting at 7:30pm on the following dates:
» Thursday April 17th
» Thursday May 15th
» Thursday June 19th
» Thursday July 17th
» Thursday August 21st
Pay the normal stadium fee or show your track pass at the pay station and then obtain a number from inside the Club House.
Usual course from stadium gates, 3 times out and back round the stone by the far gates and back to finish on the pole vault run up by judges steps.
All welcome and any offers of help to Pete Powell appreciated.