Kingston upon Hull Athletic Club
Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships
Pontefract Racecourse – Saturday 24th January 2015
Thirteen athletes from our Youth and Junior sections made their way to Pontefract to compete in the Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships, which were held at the racecourse on Saturday 24th January. They were joined by our foremost senior cross country and middle distance runner Gregan Clarkson.
It was a challenging course which was extremely wet with muddy patches that were very difficult to negotiate.
A total of 2093 athletes competed at the championship meeting. The ages of the competitors ranged from under 13 years right up to the seniors. Kingston had their strongest turnout of athletes for a number of years.
There were two outstanding performances on the day. One came from one of our youngest athletes Finlay Pickering who was running in his first Major Championship race. He followed up his victory in the Humberside Championships earlier this month, with a superb 6th place finish out of 189 starters in the under 13 boys 3100 metres. He recorded a good time too of 10:59s.
Harry Powell in his first under 20’s championship ran an outstanding race, he was another Humberside Champion at the 4th of January meeting in Grimsby, He took 13th place at the Northern Championships, in the under 20 men’s 8000 metres. He came home in a time of 27:42s.
Details of all of our other athlete’s performances at Pontefract are as follows.
Oliver Newton also ran in the under 20 men’s race. He finished in 37th place in a time of 29:35s.
Shaun Smith another Humberside Champion finished 33rd in a field of 120 runners in the under 17 men’s 6200 metres. He ran a time of 21:00s.
Jack Brothwell also ran in the under 17’s race, he finished in the middle of the field with a time of 22:27s.
Natalie Bell ran in the under15 girl’s 4000 metres race, she finished in the top third of the runners and she ran a time of 17:32s.
Martha Savage also competed in the under 15 girl’s 4000 metres, finished in the lower half of the field and her recorded time was 20:10s.
Abbie Haigh another of our Humberside Champions ran in the under 13 girls 3100 metres where she finished 42nd out of 196 starters. Abbie ran the race in 12:40s.
Becky Chivers and Rosemary Shepherd also competed in the under13 girls 3100 metres. Both girls finished in the lower half of the field. Becky recorded a time of 14:36s. Rosie’s time was 16:52s.
Matthew Lyons – Daniel Chadwick and Robert Smith competed in the under 13 boy’s 3100 metres race. They finished in the lower half of the field. Matthew recorded a time of 12:45s. Daniel ran13:18s and Robert 14.20s.
Gregan Clarkson our senior representative at the championships took to the field with another 696 runners in the senior men’s race. he finished inside the top 100 and recorded a time of 43.08s.
