Humberside XC Championships - 6th January 2008
Full Results can be found here

Grimsby & Cleethorpes Round-up
Sunday 10th/17th February 2008
Report by Gregan Clarkson

A few of the clubs athletes competed in the annual Ben Gibbons Memorial Cross Country Championships held in Weelsby Park in Grimsby on Sunday 10th February.Here are the results:

U11 Boys 1740m
1st Alexander Czelecki 7:06
2nd Andrew Hess 7:09
8th Matthew Carmichael 8:19
21st Joshua Norman 9:25
1st Team

U11 Girls 1740m
1st Chelsea Walker 7:30
5th Lucy Witherwick 8:10
6th Caitlin Witherwick 8:13
12th Keri-Beth Dymock 9:33
17th Claire Batty 10:38
1st Team

U13 Girls 2800m
8th Zoe Czelecki 13:02

U15 Girls 3350m
1st Eve Cavany 15.50
2nd Nicole Peters 15.51
5th Maria Walker 17.55
1st Team

Jnr/Snr/Vet Men 9975m
15th Mike Friend 42:00

The following Sunday a mile and a half away down the road, the neighbouring Cleethorpes Multi Terrain Beach Cross County took place in Cleethorpes.This event takes place half on a cross county course and the other half on the beach. Some excellent runs from the 8 KuHAC athletes competing, resulting amongst other results 3 winners and a 3rd place.
Here are the results:

U11 Girls
1st Chelsea Walker 6:22
8th Caitlin Witherwick 7:02
9th Lucy Witherwick 7:04
2nd Team

U11 Boys
3rd Sam Witherwick 6:29

U13 Girls
1st Alice Middleton 7:45

U15 Girls
4th Eve Cavany 11:20

Sen Men
1st Gregan Clarkson 31:41

Vet Men
11th Mike Friend 36:45

24 members of the club took on the countries leading cross country runners at the annual National Cross Country Championships, staged for the first time at Alton Towers, a new venue for this event.Conditions were pretty good under foot with a few muddy patches here and there, the weather perfect, dry with no wind and the course quite hilly, with a lot of turns on a narrow course with one big climb towards the end of each lap.

First up were the Under 15 Boys who had to run 4km. Though the club had no one in this event Alex Gibson ran in the East Hull Harriers colours and finished in 125th place in a time of 14.22. The club hope to retain Alex for forthcoming track season after spending the entire day with the rest of the KuHAC team.

The second race of the day saw the Junior Women racing alongside the Under 17 Women in a 5km race. Steph Bloor putting behind her some of her lengthy injury spells to produce a fine run in the Junior Women’s race finishing in a superb 29th place in a time of 15.42. Emily Curry, the clubs other representative in this race finished 81st in a time of 17.56.In the Under 17 Women’s race Jodie Spencer was the first KuHAC athlete home with a fine run in 41st place in a time of 16.31. Laura-Jane Day followed close behind in 49th place in a time of 16.41. Michelle Stone finished in 69th place in a time of 17.20 and training partner Lauren Havercroft finishing not far behind her in 78th place in a time of 17.30. The four girls helping the team to finish in 4th place overall, the highest placed KuHAC team of the day.

The highlight of the day was the Under 13 Girls race where club training partners Jess Lonsdale and Katie Michaels went head to head with the best Under 13 girls in the country over the 3.2km course at the front of the field. Both girls featured in the top 10 at some point during the race with Jess Lonsdale just getting the better of Katie at the finish, her time 12.10 ensured she finished in 16th place, whilst Katie, who ran the last 400m with just one shoe on finished just behind Jess in 28th place in 12.24. Two more of their training partners had a good battle of their own on the course, Katie Norris just getting the better of Alice Middleton at the finish line. Katie finishing in 121st place in a time of 13.15 whilst Alice finished 3 places further back and one second behind Katie.The four girls helping the team to finish in 8th place in the team competition. Two other members of their training squad also raced in this race.  Rebecca Gill finished in 235th place in a time of 14.07 and Zoe Czelecki in 328th place in a time of 15.18.

In the Under 17 Men’s race Liam Holiday got the better of training partner Jon Tucker over the 5.8km course, finishing in 80th place in a time of 16.16, Jon finishing in 159th place in a time of 17.01.  Mark Cage also ran in this race finishing in 256th place in a time of 18.47.

In the Under 15 Girls race run over 4km, Hannah Jacobsen was the first KuHAC athlete home in 82nd place in a time of 14.50.  Training partners Eve Cavanay and Nicole Peters developed their own little battle a little further back in the field with Eve just getting the better of her training colleague finishing in 347th place, 3 places ahead of Nicole.  There times 16.53 and 16.55 respectively.

Jack Cutsforth was the clubs sole representative in the Junior Men’s race run over 9.4km.  Sadly for Jack it wasn’t his best race in the world for him as he finished 105th in a time of 32.23.  Likewise Eric Gardham was the sole representative in the Under 13 Boys race after Alex Randerson couldn’t run due to illness.  Eric’s time 12.03 finishing in 125th place on the 3.2km course.

The final two races of the day were the two senior races.  The women ran first with 495 athletes running the distance of 8km with Jo Maddick the first KuHAC athlete home in 57th place in a time of 27.27.  Cheryl Lyons backed her up in a time of 29.24 finishing in 130th place.  In the Men’s race, out of the 1244 who ran, Gregan Clarkson got the better of training partner Tom McKee finishing 184th in a time of 37.25.  Tom finishing in 262nd place in a time of 38.29 over the 12km course.  The majority of these athletes can look forward to representing their county at the forthcoming Inter County Cross Country Championships in Nottingham in 2 weeks time.

KuHAC Results

Senior Men: 51st Jon Frost (East Hull Harriers, 2nd claim KuHAC) 34.49, 184th Gregan Clarkson  37.25,  262nd Tom McKee 38.29, (1244 finished).

Junior Men: 105th Jack Cutsforth 32.23.

Under 17 Men: 80th Liam Holiday 16.16, 159th Jon Tucker 17.01, 256th Mark Cage  18.47.

Under 15 Boys: 272nd Alex Gibson (East Hull Harriers) 14.22.

Under 13 Boys: 125th Eric Gardham 12.03.
 
Senior Women: 57th Jo Maddick 27.27, 130th Cheryl Lyons 29.24, (495 finished).

Junior Women: 29th Steph Bloor 15.42, 81st Emily Curry 17.56.

Under 17 Women: 41st Jodie Spencer 16.31, 49th Laura Jane Day 16.41, 69th Michelle Stone 17.20, 78th Lauren Havercroft 17.30.
Teams: 4th - Kingston upon Hull AC (4 to count)

Under 15 Girls: 82nd Hannah Jacobsen 14.50, 347th Eve Cavany 16.53, 350th Nicole Peters 16.55.

Full Results can be found here

Barton XC Meeting
Sunday 2nd March 2008
Report by Gregan Clarkson

The Barton Cross Country Championships is known as one of the most popular events within the local area. Yet again in its 28th year this proved correct as 21 of the clubs athletes took on the course in Baysgarth Park against clubs as far away as Leeds, Halifax, Holmfirth and Cheshire. The course fairly firm under foot but also quite breezy.

The opening race of the day was the Under 11 girls race with Chelsea Walker claiming another win, crowning off an excellent cross-country season. She won the 1.25 mile run by 7 seconds, winning in a time of 7.35. She was backed up by Lucy Witherwick in 6th place in 8.10, her cousin Caitlin Witherwick in 15th place in 8.36 and Keri-Beth Dymock in 17th place in 8.47. Chelsea, Lucy and Caitlin helping the team to finish 2nd place in the team competition.

The 2nd race of the day saw the Under 11 boys line up on the same course as the Under 11 girls, an event dominated by Kingston upon Hull athletes. Andrew Hess won the race in a time of 7.26 who was backed up by Sam Witherwick in 2nd place finishing 3 seconds behind Hess in 7.29. Alex Czelecki finished 2 places further down the field in 4th place in 7.39. There was no surprise the 3 of them helped KuHAC to take the team prize quite convincingly. Also in this race Lewis Russell produced a fine run in 7th place in 8.10 and also Joshua Norman finished in 24th place in 9.21.

The Under 13 Girls were next up on the course running the same route as the Under 11 Boys and Girls. Alice Middleton was the first KuHAC athlete home in 6th place who found the course a little too short for her likings finishing in a time of 7.35. She was backed up with two of her training partners further down the field. Rebecca Gill finished in 10th place in a time of 7.49 and Zoe Czelecki finishing in 18th place in a time of 8.06. The three girls helping themselves to the 3rd placed team in the prize competition.

The 4th race of the day saw the Under 13 Boys race over the distance of 2 miles with Jack Michaels the first KuHAC athlete home in 9th place in a time of 12.40. The other athlete in this race was Matthew Elvidge who finished in 11th place in a time of 13.54. In the next race, the Under 15 Girls race also over the distance of 2 miles. Nicole Peters was the sole KuHAC representative in this race. Nicole finished in 9th place in a time of 13.29.

Excitement prevailed in the Senior Men’s race (run with the Junior and Vets men) as Gregan Clarkson took on the 6mile course with old friend and old foe Mick Jagger from Lincoln Wellington at the front of the field. The two of them ran alongside each other for the first 5 miles before Gregan pulled away for a fine victory, his first over Mick in race conditions. His time 34.48. Gregan was backed up by Graham Gagg who also produced a fine run finishing in 6th place in a time of 38.45. Mike Friend also ran in this race and finished 21st in a time of 43.11. Mike was the 11th vet to finish in the race.

The Senior Women’s race was the next race to run (run with the Under 17 ladies, junior and vet ladies). This produced 4 good runs from 4 training partners over the 2.5 mile course. Michelle Stone and Lauren Havercroft (both Under 17) producing by far the best finish to a race on the day, battling it out over a sprint finish. In the end Michelle just got the better of Lauren despite Lauren leading most of the way round the course. 2 seconds split them at the finish line with Michelle finishing in 3rd place in 16.22 and Lauren in 4th place in 16.24. They were well backed up by Jodie Spencer (also Under 17) in 7th place in 16.58 and Emily Curry in 8th place (Junior Lady) in 17.11. Emily the 1st Junior Lady home. Michelle, Lauren and Jodie not only finishing in 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Under 17’s race, they also took the team prize as well. Overall 21 good runs from KuHAC athletes.

Full Results