ANDY FOX REPORTS ON THE NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY

On Saturday 21st. Feb a number of local athletes took part in the English National cross country championships at Temple Newsam just outside Leeds.

The course was a tough mixture of agricultural and farm land with 2 big hills on each lap together with a hill of less gradient. There was a muddy section of about 800m on the 3.7km lap. As the men ran 3 laps of the course this proved taxing to say the least as the races wore on.

The first to compete for the locals were the under 15 boys. Andrew Newton ran a fine race to finish in 61st. place out of the 300 boys who completed the race. He set off steadily and came past many athletes on the last hill and finishing straight. He ran a very mature race and is certainly showing much promise for the future. Young Lee Butterworth also ran in this category and produced a good run. He found the start a little quick but came through well on the hills to pass many of the athletes who had set off more quickly. Lee and Andrew will have learnt much from their debut in the event.

Lee Butterworth (ML)

Next to race was Keith Gerrard. His season has already been a revelation to the UK and England selectors and his race on Saturday was to be equally impressive. Tom Humphries set off at a tremendous pace chased only by Phil McGlory of Liverpool Harriers. Both young men are 2 years older than Keith. The athlete leading the chasing group early on wore "red and yellow" as in the quote from last year’s commentary. Keith led the chasing pack of 8 runners and observers were a little concerned that he might do all the work for this group and pay the price later in the race. Quickly though the group whittled down to 5 and then 3 as Keith was left vying for 3rd. place with Sharland and Jacobs, both of Ipswich Harriers and both believed to be too old to compete for Great Britain in the world Cross Country Champs this year. So the race progressed as McGlory and Humphries tried to break each other up front, Gerrard, Sharland and Jacobs did likewise and at the same time pulled away from the rest of the pack.

As the raced moved into the last mile McGlory was clear from Humphries with Sharland third Keith fourth and Jacobs 5th. So it stayed until the final 200m straight when Jacobs managed to get ahead of Keith. The Manx lad came 5th. on the day but was the first of all athletes his age or up to 17 months older. A fantastic achievement that must fill him full of confidence for the future. Keith’s next target will be the Inter Counties Champs. and World Cross trial. where he will hopefully be able to secure a place in the GB team as his performance on Saturday suggests this is well within his scope. A few athletes who sat out of the race in Leeds will be present at Nottingham in March but Keith’s targets will no doubt remain as high as ever.

The Seniors saw mixed fortunes as one would expect from a group who had been up since 5.30 in the morning, travelled hundreds of miles, been on their feet supporting others for 4 hours and then got ready to compete!!!!

Having said that some fine performnces were noted. Darren Gray set off very quickly and held on to finish in 200th. place. This means he is the 5th. highest local finisher in the History of the event behind Graham CLarke, Gianni Epifani (twice) Andy Fox (twice) and Chris Quine (once) who have managed to get into the top 200. Darren left Andy Fox, a disappointed 343 and Andy Cannell 350 way behind on the day. This was Cannell’s debut in the event and he will have learnt a tremendous amount from it. It is also a debut for an athlete from the Island from any other club apart from Manx Harriers!!! Nick Percival showed he is coming back to form to run on strongly to finish in 539 with Chris Quine, making a last minute decision to run, finished in 545. Dave Newton ran the race for the first time since 1988 and came home in a placing 723 out of the 1,394 finishers.

So the national is over for another year. Some great performances were achieved by the locals on the day and no doubt the athletes are fired up for the races left this winter and then to prepare and better themselves in next year’s big race. One thing you can rest assured of is that manxathletics.com will carry full results and reports once again.