Compiled by Murray Lambden

Contributions as credited otherwise written by Murray Lambden

If you would like to share anything you know about events or people in the sport in the Isle of Man then please email  [email protected]

FOX PARTY TONIGHT   (31-12-03)

Andy and Jan Fox extend a welcome to everyone involved with Manx athletics to join them at their house at 61 Brunswick Road, Douglas tonight either to see in the new year or merely to have a drink and a chat on the way into town.

You are invited to call anytime after 8 pm.

Telephone 626415.

MANX EXILE VISITS   (31-12-03)

We enjoyed the company of former Manx race walker Tim Baker, his wife Viv and their children, Voirrey & Kerenza, yesterday afternoon.

They are visiting Tim's mother and family in Ballasalla for the Christmas period. They have lived in Glossop in Derbyshire for several years, a convenient location for me when I visited the Commonwealth Games last year.

I had forgotten that Tim once ran in the Tour of Tameside stage race which is close to their home.  Martin Caley ran in this at least once. Has anyone other than Martin completed it as a Manx resident? I suspect that Alan Bagley and Tony Okell have before they moved to the Isle of Man.

ISLE OF MAN ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION WEBSITE DUE TO LAUNCH SOON    (30-12-03)

Graham Davies, secretary of the IOMAA , is hoping to launch a website in the next few days.  I registered the www.iomaa.co.uk website on his behalf over a year ago but have not had the opportunity to assist him (or several other people with their projects) as hoped.

At the moment the domain is redirected to this site, but subject to a couple of technical hitches, the site should be online this week.

One of the advantages to me (and therefore to all visitors to the site) is that I will no longer publish fixtures on this site but rather re-direct to the IOMAA site where Graham will keep the fixture list "live" with regular updates.

I shall continue to publicise as many individual events as possible however.

3 YEARS ON   (30-12-03)

Its now three years since this site was launched and I'm fairly pleased at the moment that the objectives that I set out all that time ago (and are re-published below) remain very much the same.

Although it would always be nice if we could all agree on every single issue, one of the things I felt there was a need for, and others asked for, was a forum for people to express their views. An online forum can and should not replace the formal channels of organisation but it does provide those people who are good enough to give up their time to organise the sport additional access to grass roots views.

The www.manxathletics.com objectives in December 2000 were and still are: 

To provide a forum for the views of athletes in the Isle of Man
To inform and communicate with athletes and anyone with an interest in athletics in the Isle of Man
To extend the enjoyment derived from athletics in the Isle of Man by sharing the fun and pleasure of the sport
To provide a history of the sport by the provision of on-line databases of major events.

Although I try to keep the site as friendly and informative as possible, and hope that people recognise faces at events from the pictures on the site, I've tried to keep the style fairly formal most of the time, with the use of full names etc, so that new people wishing to join the sport don't feel the it is a closed shop.

STEVE PARTINGTON BACK IN TRAINING  (29-12-03)

Steve Partington managed his first training session yesterday morning since he pulled up injured in the Empire Garage Peel to Douglas Walk four weeks earlier.

"I must be getting more sensible in my old age" he said yesterday as he pointed out how patient he had been to allow his hamstring injury time to respond to physiotherapy and recover generally.

The 38 year old multi British international race walker and five times Commonwealth Games athlete, has a busy year planned after a period of active rest in 2003. More details to follow.

 ANDY WATSON MAINTAINS THE SPIRIT   (29-12-03)

During my conversation with Steve Partington yesterday it was he who pointed out the following.

Andy Watson was one of the few runners to enter a team in the Millennium Way Relay who do not compete regularly.  This is something that the organisers have always encouraged over the years to attract newcomers to the sport and there is no disadvantage as all teams are handicapped.  So well done to the 2 Fast and 2 Furious team of Andy, Nevina Black, Tanya Sanderson and Laurie Sanderson.

Meanwhile Andy makes his debut in the Lancashire Cross Country at Blackburn on Saturday.

PARISH WALK DATE CONFIRMED    (29-12-03)

The 2004 Clerical Medical Parish Walk has been confirmed for Saturday/Sunday 19 & 20 June. Its hard to believe that we are already closer to the next one than the 2003 event.

Entry forms will be available in the new year.

As the event relies heavily on the goodwill of a number of volunteers, it is worth considering, if you are not taking part yourself, whether you can spare an hour or two to help during that busy June weekend.

 Andy Cannell targets the National Cross Country    (28-12-03)

Andy Cannell, who has been such an impressive newcomer to the athletics scene this year, is planning to run in this winter's National Cross Country Championships. The Northern AC runner who finished second in the fourth round of the Manx Gas Cross Country Challenge put some of the improvement in form in that event down to the use of spikes for the first time.

As middle distance co-ordinator Chris Quine pointed out on the forum recently, its great to see 22 years olds (Andy & Darren Gray) finishing first and second in the cross country league.  Andy has added his views on why we don't see more of his age group pushing themselves hard in sport on the Island with a contribution to the forum. His own enthusiasm can be shown by the fact that he wrote it on Christmas Day!

Female race walkers carry competition to relay   (28-12-03)

Marie Latham, Sue Biggart and Bridget Kaneen are all well known as fiercely competitive race walkers and they all raced ran over the third leg of the Millennium Way Relay. They were separated on time by just eight seconds in the order that I have listed them above.

and you thought the weather couldn't get any worse!    (28-12-03)

The weather was bad enough for runners and cyclists on Boxing Day but the weather overnight has possibly been even worse. I always say that luck evens itself out and that we all get good luck and bad luck.  Well, I've trained in some awful weather before now but I seem to have been really lucky this week as I didn't plan to train on Boxing Day or today when things have been dire but I did train yesterday (very long run with Paul Curphey & Mike Garrett) and the weather was perfect. 

Andy Fox provided further details of Keith's great run via telephone last night, after speaking with Keith.

There were 66 runners in the race in which Keith finished 3rd among a British contingent who claimed the top six places.  The majority of the runners came from Belgium, France, Holland and Germany.

He set of at a sensible pace among the top thirty and then eased his way to the front of the field, sitting in behind the eventual winner Sam Jacobs.  He felt comfortable in this position through two of the three 2km laps, the undulating course very much suiting Keith's style.

The gap between the leading two, including Keith, grew to 25 metres but on the final lap Jacobs, who is two years older than Keith,  was able to ease ahead. In the final sixty metres Keith also lost second spot to 3.43 1500 metres lad Anthony Moran, who is the same age as Keith.

Among the many scalps for Keith was Matthew Barnes-Smith who finished 14th.  A week earlier he had represented Great Britain in the European Championships.

Keith has been rewarded for his efforts with an England call up on 18 January 2004 at the Spanish Cross Challenge.

After that, well let's wait and see.  He is due to review his racing plans with Andy on his return.

CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPS      (24-12-03)

Whilst we wait patiently for hard working IOMAA secretary Graham Davies to confirm the 2004 fixtures (I've seen a draft but they are still embargoed at this stage as far as I am aware), it seems that the new date for the championships in Sunday 8 February.

WALKERS KEEP PHYSIOS EMPLOYED     (24-12-03)

 One little snippet I forgot to use a couple of weeks ago followed Steve Partington's nasty injury in the Empire Garage Peel to Douglas Walk.  Whilst exiting his physiotherapist's treatment room, the 10 times winner of the walk met second placed man Kevin Walmsley on the way in. I am told that this year's winner, Peter Kaneen also had treatment.  All roads lead to the physiotherapist?

 WEBSITE PLANS   (23-12-03)

I'm currently enjoying a two week break from work at the end of what, for many reasons, has been a hectic year.

Although I have many other things to do, including finding some time to relax, I am hoping to make some changes to the website during this time. Some of the work will be behind the scenes to allow me to publish quickly after events in the months ahead; other things will be much more visible as I update databases, publish more old pictures and re-design as well as publishing full coverage of the Mann & Partners Millennium Way Relay, the Supercards St Johns Fell Race and the Lancashire Cross Country on 3 January.

So don't go away and remember to share your thoughts with others over the forum.

 GATE REVENGE   (23-12-03)

51 weeks after a stupid training accident where I slipped whilst climbing over a gate in the lane from Cornaa to Ballaglass, I returned to take my revenge yesterday.  The accident cost me more than three months of running of any sort and it was nearly six months before I dared run than four miles on my dodgy knee.

Since then things have improved considerably and I broke all my promises by climbing (very carefully) over the gate in both directions again rather than opening it!  The distance I ran in my 30 minutes and return course to Maughold didn't back up my recent positive "best form for a couple of years" claims but I guess Saturday's 22 mile session was still in my legs!

 WENDY ROSS LOOKS FOR A MARATHON WHERE SHE CAN RUN (23-12-03)

I was chatting to Wendy Ross at a party on Saturday evening and laughing at how I had bumped into her and her family at last year's Flora London Marathon.

Wendy has completed the London Marathon on two occasions although on both times she has had distractions in the form of family illnesses and injuries. The biggest problem she has encountered however has been a lack of space to run in and so and intends to find a quieter course, perhaps Dublin, for her third marathon

ANDY GARRETT MARRIED TODAY  (21-12-03)

One of my best friends of many years, runner, walker and triathlete Andy Garrett from Willaston, married Karen Wells in New Zealand earlier today.

 WALKING AT AN ALL TIME LOW IN BRITAIN  (21-12-03)

Pleasing as it is to see Manxman Peter Kaneen ranked as the 7th best 20km walker in Peter Matthews' 36th UK merit rankings, it was very sad to see that he was the last of the race walkers to even be deemed worthy of a ranking. The 50km standards are much, much worse with only one person, former Manx Airlines 20km winner Andy Penn who also topped the 20km rankings, being ranked at all.

Peter Matthews commented on a decline in standards that is close to terminal as follows: Until Penn's mark, on his debut at the distance, no British athlete broke the NUTS standard for rankings of 5 hours that has been in place since 1958. For all but one year from 1978 to 1877 the tenth best in Britain was under 4.30. Over the years I have occasionally ranked an athlete in this event with a season's best of over 4.40 but rarely. This year the event barely existed apart from Mike Smith winning the RWA title in 5:00:41 from Chris Berwick in 5:05:46, demonstrating the tragic collapse of walking and of endurance events in general."

With locals Steve Partington and Peter Kaneen both aiming for 50km this season then some improvement in the UK rankings for 2004 is virtually guaranteed but the event nationally is not going to revive merely by a few people from within the sport moving up to in distance.

The women's rankings take into account all walking distances and as a result Bridget Kaneen and Marie Latham, who were sixth and seventh best at 20km on time, are not ranked among the top 12 overall. Marie was 4th best at 10km on the track and 10th (Bridget 9th) on the road at 10km.  It has to be said that, despite a noticeable decline in standards in our winter league races in recent years, if there were a few more clubs like Manx Harriers around the country , with walkers such as Steve, Peter, Marie and Bridget, and coaches like Allan Callow, there would not be such a problem.

 AND MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNING HAS A SIMILAR PROBLEM   (21-12-03)

Peter Matthews comments as follows on his 5,000 metres ranking: "...a couple of men ranked despite not breaking 14 minutes; that has never happened before since I started these UK rankings in 1968.....the tenth best mark of 14:02:57 represents an appalling decline, the previous worst since we went metric was 13:52.6 in 1970 and one has to go back to 1960 for a lower level taking 3 miles into account."

So there is a fairly empty stage for talent such as our own 17 year old Keith Gerrard to perform on in future years. The downside for the likes of Keith however is that there are fewer top class middle distance runners around to pitch his skills against.

 WHY?     (21-12-03)

I spent some time debating with Allan Callow last night about the reasons for the decline in national standard and indeed the importance or otherwise of the decline. I have to say neither of us had entirely convincing arguments probably because there is no one simple reason.

Allan was the closer of the two of us to suggesting there was. He believes that there is as much talent in the sport in the UK at the moment but that people are not being encouraged to excel.  He thinks that a belief that you can beat everyone else is the key to being successful and points to the turnaround in British swimming in recent years which he attributes largely to attitude.

Although I share Allan's desire to see an improvement in standard and agree that this will only happen if more people have a desire to be successful, I take a much broader view of the importance of athletics in people's lives. Years ago we had a system whereby just about every school took part in the sport and clubs around the country coached athletes through a structure that encouraged elitism via county, national and international progression including the elite universities. Challenging oneself in a sporting way was considered to be part of one's education for many.  But attitudes have changed.  Fewer people feel the need to challenge themselves in such a way and society doesn't support them to do so. I think that is a shame but I don't think we'll change a society that encourages people to plan multiple holidays and cars regardless of how positive our attitudes are.

Almost as an aside, how many people noticed that the French team at last week's European cross country championships were all born in Morocco?  Where were all the French born runners? I suggest that Britain is not alone to a cultural change where personal achievement outside of material matters is less important to most people.

 IMAGINE THIS    (21-12-03)

You imagine you can beat the best in the world, you train like crazy and you race sensibly. You improve your time for the half marathon in 61:49. If you were British you would be the fastest runner in 2003 by more than one minute. But if you were from Kenya you would only be ranked equal 31st!

If you think you have the answers to reverse British standards then comment on the forum or email [email protected]

Northern AC Cross Country on Sunday

According to the Manx Independent, Northern AC are holding a round of their Ramsey Bakery sponsored cross country league on Sunday.

Richie Stevenson looks forward to the 2004 season and a record breaking sponsorship

The St Johns fell race on New Years Day, sponsored by Supercards,  is the opening round of the 2004 Fell League which yet again will be sponsored by Managrakem of Spring Valley and we must say another big thank you to the Jones Brothers  for their continued support. There are some changes to the leagues format for 2004, the most important being that runners are now required to complete six races as opposed to this years five. This six must include one race from each category, short, medium and long, plus any three other. There will be an extra race run in conjunction with Easters Mountain Marathon next year. The race will run over the second half of the MMM course on Easter Saturday starting from St Johns at 12.30pm. This will be about 14 miles in length and so will qualify as a long race in the league. Anyone who completes the full 31 miles race will not be disadvantaged as this will earn them double league points.

SUE FURNER LONDON BOUND

John O'Groats to Lands End walker, Sue Furner, is the latest walker to confirm an entry in the Flora London Marathon on 18 April 2004.

PAUL CLARKE ON HIS WAY BACK?

Paul Clarke, who this time last year was the man to beat, was about to embark on his first training session for several months when I spoke to him on Saturday. He has been keeping fit on his bike but, with the aid of orthotics in his shoes, he was hoping to go for a short steady run. He is still not too confident about when he will be able to return to competition but he won't be rushing it. If all goes well however we might be lucky enough to see him in action before the end of the cross country season.

FORUM

I think the forum is working again now after a few days of problems. I simply deleted some of the old entries. If you missed it when it was away, make sure its there in the future by using it!

Mann & Partners Millennium Way Relay - Paul Jackson reports

The closing date for entries for the Mann & Partners Millennium Way Relay is this Thursday 18th December. Entry forms must be through Andy Fox's letterbox at 61 Brunswick Road by MIDDAY. No late entries will be accepted.

BATES AT THE DOUBLE IN GUERNSEY

 Judith Harrison is the latest Flora London Marathon entry confirmed

Judith has a confirmed place in next years London Marathon. It is a golden bond entry raising funds for Action for M.E. & the Isle of Man M.E. Supporters Group.

I'll try and update the list of Manx entries in the next couple of days.

 CARRIED FORWARD

I've got lots of pictures from Sunday's winter league walk thanks to Steve Partington and Bridget Kaneen, a cross country results update from Graham Davies and a revised Manx Harriers entry form from Amada McNair all carried forward until Tuesday evening, 

 TONY OKELL "ticking over with 5.30 am running"

Tony Okell's running has been given a lower priority since he was promoted in his job at Smiths Aerospace but during the past couple of months he has been doing 90 minutes of running each morning at 5.30 am.

After a fairly quiet spell of late, its easy to forget what Tony has done since he came to the Island less than five years ago. Despite some great performances by other runners, he has probably won more fell races than all the other runners put together (I'm sure Ian Callister will confirm), he qualified for Lancashire in the inter counties cross country and he beat the Manx 20 mile record with a 1.46 clocking. Let's hope he gets back to his best soon.

STEVE TAYLOR STIRS!

Local athletics has certainly had a very strong connection with alcohol over the years as recently mentioned on manxathletics.com. The Easter Beer Drinking competition and the legendary Boxing Day Coach Trip were just two occasions mentioned.

However maybe the time has come for local athletes to cut down on the alcohol intake as only yesterday university scientists released the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer.

Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption. The theory is that beer contains female hormones (hops contain phytoestrogens) and that by drinking enough beer, men turn into women. To test the theory, 100 men were fed 8 pints of beer each within a 1 hour period. It was then observed that 100% of the test subjects:

1) Gained weight.

2) Talked excessively without making sense.

3) Became overly emotional.

4) Couldn't drive.

5) Failed to think rationally.

6) Argued over nothing.

7) Had to sit down while urinating.

8) Refused to apologize when obviously wrong.

No further testing was considered necessary

Murray's note: in the interests of equality I won't publish anymore jokes of this nature until I've used a female against men type!

PAUL JACKSON REPORTS ON A GREAT SPRINT FINISH

Ian Gale’s debut win in the final round of the Walker Brothers Winter Hill League was enough to secure overall victory in the three race series which concluded over the testing 3 mile course at Glen Maye on Saturday in perfect weather conditions.

A field of 38 runners headed by Ian Gale bombed down the Glen Rushen Mines road along the initial ¾ mile gradual descent before clambering up into the plantation for the first of  the two tough climbs. It was ‘hands on knees’ through the trees before the leaders Ian Gale, ‘Ozzie’ Osbourne and Simon Skillicorn emerged from the plantation into the sunshine and out along the track before the second lung buster up to the top. Ian was soon forced to concede the lead to Ozzie on the final climb with Simon Skillicorn hanging on to the pace just behind. Resisting the temptation to take a breather on the track between climbs was the chasing pack including Doc Young, Juan Kinley, Phil Mackie, Dave Corrin, Phil Cain, Mike Quine and leading lady Cal Partington.

There was controversy to follow as the course flags for the race route muddled with the enduro bikes direction signs which were also in evidence around the plantation. This resulted in a number of the chasing group leading each other off course following a wrong turn.  Having to force their way back through the field (quite literally), the lower order runners were soon reeled back in. In the battle to regain lost time and race positions, the final slog back up the Glen Rushen Mines Road to the finish resembled the closing stages of a well handicapped race and made for some exciting finishing.

Meanwhile at the front of the race a ‘grandstand finish’ saw Ian Gale demonstrate superior finishing speed on the tarmac to overhaul Ozzie just 100m from the line and finishing with just 7 seconds to spare. Another solid performance from the improving  Simon Skillicorn completed a predictable top 3 result. Phil Mackie’s terrific run despite a calf strain on the descent through the trees earned him a well deserved 5th place behind Doc Young and clear of triathlete Juan Kinley in 7^th.Peter Cooper also showed signs of returning to full fitness following his long spell of injury over the summer with a strong finish over the final road section for 9^th place just a second behind Keith Lowe. John Crellin ran just 9 days after surgery and admits he will be hoping his surgeon doesn't spot his name in the results.

Despite having to regain the lead from Rose Hooton after going walkabout in the plantation, 1^st lady Cal Partington recovered brilliantly to regain 6^th place overall. Christine Barwell continues to improve with a 3^rd place finish in the ladies race and it was great to see emerging enthusiasm and competition over the hills from newcomers Michelle Kewley, Shirley Fowley  and the experienced Ann Cain.

Of course there was much more at stake on Saturday than the race itself as 25 competitors completed a full set of 3 finishes to qualify for the final league positions. Ozzie knew he would have to lose sight of Ian Gale in his rear view mirror to stand any chance of overhauling a 32 second deficit after the first two rounds. As it happened the 1-2-3 of Ian, Ozzie and Simon in the final league positions mirrored their relative positions in every race. Phil Mackie and David Young had to sweat it out for 4th and 5th with the Doc getting the nod by just 1 second in the revised aggregate results. 6th place Phil Cain had only 2 seconds to spare over Mike Quine after both going astray in the plantation descent on Saturday.

Cal Partington dominated the ladies competition with convincing wins in each of the three round. Rose Hooton normally prefers a longer run out over the fells, but her experience and great ability and confidence on descending ensured her a second place ahead of the emerging talent of Christine Barwell who completed her first Winter Hill League. It was also good to see another newcomer Shirley Fowley tackle the full league for the first time and compete well ahead of 5^th placed Ann Cain.

In the Junior league Andrew Newton took the honours. The outstanding youngster mixed it well with the seniors with a brilliant  top 10 finish in round 1 followed by  victory in the Junior Fell Running Championships in Peel. Unfortunately Andrew twisted his ankle playing football a few days before round 3 and his determination to complete the league earned him much praise. Lee Butterworth  also looked confident competing amongst the seniors and took second place over the only U17 competitor Josh Masterson who also impressed on his debut on the hills.

Overall it was a great series of well organised races, all blessed with fine weather. I'm sure all competitors would like to thank Richie and the team at the MMMO especially Tony, Doug, Margaret, Walter and Steve and of course the event sponsors Walker Brothers Ltd.

 HARD TRAINING FOR FELL RUNNERS - Richie Stevenson reports

The fell runners group will be training every Tuesday night at Glencrutchery Road as from this coming week 9th December. There will be a break over the Xmas period details of which will be notified in the near future. Please be warmed up and ready to train at 6.30pm. The sessions are designed for all standards of runner, not just the faster runners, and they do work. Ian Gale and Simon Skillicorn have taken part in as many of these sessions as they have been able to attend and they have both improved dramatically over the last 18 months. They are hard sessions and you will only get out of them what you put in.

DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Geoff Brew raises the above on the forum.  I'm quite surprised how little discussion there has been outside the core of deep thinking and far sighted people on this subject.

I'm also sure that there is still plenty happening behind the scenes but maybe there should be some public communication.

 WINTER HILL LEAGUE

First reports from the Walker Brothers league from Graham Davies confirm that Ian Gale won the race with Cal Partington winning the women's section.  

Brian Osbourne was second with (Graham thinks) Simon  Skillicorn and Phil Mackie next.

 PORTABLE SOLUTION

If you saw my "cry for help" on the forum last night you will know that I have had problems accessing the internet and so I've had to set up my email and website files on a laptop borrowed from my employers, Caymanx Trust Company.

So I hope to cover the Walker Brothers Hill League later today although right now I hate computers!

ANTHONY BRAND PHOTOS

Anthony has updated his photo site to include pictures of the most recent cross country and the Bagley awards.

Use the navigation bar on the left to access.

INTER SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY REPORT BY GRAHAM DAVIES

At Peel today, tough course wet and misty. 

 and Graham recognises himself among others from that 1976 photo

Graham Davies, Peter Mac, John Wright, John Wilkinson, Bryan Doughty, Dave Newton, Steve Kelly, Mike Gray, Phil Brooks, Tony Varley & John Comaish.

 IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR HILL RUNNERS   (05-12-03)

MANN & PARTNERS MILLENNIUM WAY RELAY UPDATE   (05-12-03)

by Paul Jackson

The deadline for entries for the Millennium Way Relay is less than 2 weeks away, and organisation of the event is now well under way. As usual for pre-entry events we expect most entries to be submitted nearer to the deadline. Entries must arrive at 61 Brunswick Road by 12 noon on Thursday 18th December. The organising committee are meeting later the same day to calculate the handicapping, so entries cannot be accepted after this time. 

RACE WALKING RECORD  (05-12-03)

Race walking enthusiasts new and old will welcome the revamp of Tim Watt's www.racewalkingrecord.com site.

Tim explained the changes to me this week; "As you'll see I've added a weblog to make it more news oriented  - there are items like the latest that are wasted in a once a month publication" referring to the printed version of the Race Waking Record."

Needless to say, as well as inviting you to visit the site, Tim will welcome news from race walkers on the Isle of Man or indeed anyone visiting this site who use the link.

FLM - day 2   (05-12-03)

Bridget Kaneen emailed to say that she has been accepted for the Flora London Marathon next year although she has serious doubts as to whether she will make it due to injury.  After all the work she puts into the sport it will be nice if she can make it and allow others to do the organising for a change!

Including Richard Radcliffe, who told me last week he was doing it, that makes six so far! Keep telling me about them and I'll keep this file updated and build the information over the months ahead.

FLORA LONDON MARATHON  (04-12-03)

Entrants were advised yesterday whether or not they had been accepted for the above and I'm sure there will be some disappointments.

My training group had a 100% success rate however.  Mike Garrett had his entry accepted in the ballot for the first time while Neville Jewell was successful for the second year in a row.  Paul Curphey and myself were guaranteed entries via the "good for age" system.

I'm going to start preparing the list of Manx entries much earlier this year (well really its next 18 April) so please email [email protected] if you or someone you know has been accepted (or even if you weren't accepted it may be of interest to some people).

There are normally 30-40 local residents and Manx people living off the island.

Thanks.

 MANX HARRIERS MEMBERSHIP FORMS    (03-12-03)

Any member of Manx Harriers, or anyone wishing to join the club, can download entry forms here.

PDF

 Microsoft Excel

 Thanks to Amanda MacNair for the above.

Similar information from other clubs is welcome, preferably in electronic form although I can scan if necessary.

MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNERS GET TOGETHER AGAIN

Chris Quine is the organiser and the reporter    (02-12-03)

The second meeting of the Island's new Middle Distance Squad are meeting at the NSC this Sunday. Those who did not attend the first squad meeting should be there at 9.15 am to cover the squad induction. For everyone else the start time is 10 am. It is intended to include a cross country training session on the playing fields at Spring Valley and Liz Corran has kindly agreed to run a session on Core Stability. This is a technique which is being increasingly used by physios and the like to help strengthen the lower back area and thereby prevent injury.

Those who attended last time may be glad to know that there will not be a fitness test this time. This will be repeated around February/March thereby giving people the time to improve their fitness levels.

The belief is that these meetings should combine good quality training with others along with appropriate advise and support. This will help our athletes to develop and improve over the coming months.

The day is open to all in the under 15 age group upwards. Over 25 athletes and coaches attended the first meeting last month.

MANX HARRIERS ANNUAL TRIP TO THE LANCASHIRE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

by Andy Fox

 These take place at Blackburn and Manx Harriers are taking a party to compete. Forms and instructions have been issued to many interested parties already but I obviously do not know of everyone's intentions. If you would like to compete please fill in the form and return to Andy Fox at 61, Brunswick Rd, Douglas IM2 3NW by Wednesday 3/12/03 early evening at the latest. If a junior athlete I will need a cheque for £35 if a senior £55. This covers the cost of return flights, Bus in UK and entry fee. If you ring me I can give you further details as required. 

 Entry form in Word format

Joint Peel to Douglas walk statistician, Steve Taylor, adds some facts

You made a comment about Peters times being close together which gave me the excuse to look a little closer at the results of the last three years.

The time of first woman has only varied by 51 seconds in those years. The 20th placed finisher has varied by only 53 seconds in those years.

There is no doubt that we don't have the quality in depth at the front of the field but the following stats show that things are improving. Although the winning time for both men and women has slowed in each of the three years.

               2001            2002            2003

10th    1.40.55         1.36.46         1.41.11

20th    1.51.05         1.50.29         1.51.22

30th    2.02.36         1.58.33         1.54.57

40th    2.15.31         2.08.39         2.06.36

As I pointed out in a letter to Race Walking Record some years ago, its just as competitive at 60 minutes for 10km then it ever was at 45. I think that anyone who decides to take up walking will be able to slot in and have a race rather than just a procession.

 MANX GAS CROSS CHALLENGE

Round 4:                     Sunday 14^th December 2003

Venue:                        The Driney

Hosts:                         Western Athletic Club

Directions to Driney Farm, St Johns.

From   -           Douglas and the South at Ballacraine crossroads

Take Glen Helen road to Balligbridge, left at Ballig on Poortown Road. Turn off Poortown Road on to Switch Back Road, Then right on to Starvey Road. Course and Parking on the right. (Aprox ½ Mile)

From   -           Peel as above or take the Poortown Road from Peel

From -             Ramsey and the North

At Kirk Michael take Coast Road to Peel as far as far as Switch Back Road. (Knocksharry) Aprox 11/2

Mile along switchback turn left on to Starvey Road. Course and Parking on the right. (Aprox ½ Mile)

PLEASE NOTE – NO TOILETS OR CHANGING