Report from Pulrose

The 5th and final round of the Manx Gas Cross Challenge series was held last Sunday afternoon in wet and windy conditions at Douglas Golf Club, Pulrose. As is usually the case, numbers were down for the final round of the series, many competitors having already completed the required number of races to count for the series. Nevertheless, 59 hardy souls faced the starter, and there was no shortage of close and exciting racing in this Manx Harriers organised event.

First away were the Under 9s over 1 lap of the lower field, and this race was an absolute cracker. The first 3 boys and the first girl all entered the finishing straight together, and after a fantastic sprint finish Northern AC’s Jamie Garrett clinched his fourth win in a row just 1 second ahead of Conor Davies, with Patrick Cox a further 1 second behind in 3rd. Aimee Cringle took a great win in the girls race, finishing 8 seconds clear of Ruth Nathan. Series winner Danielle Barton had to settle for 3rd place this time.

The Under 11s raced over 2 laps of the lower field, and the absence of champion Will Morris gave Terence George the chance to take victory with a strong run. For the third time in a row Harvey Neale was 2nd and Owen Dudley 3rd. But ahead of all the boys was Katie Astin who just gets better and better with every race. She won the U11 Girls race by 43 seconds from Sosanna Cox, who in turn had an advantage of almost a minute over Josie McGarrigle.

Perhaps the most significant race of the day was the U13 Boys, where any one of 3 competitors still had a chance of clinching the league title. The absence of Jak Morris reduced this to a 2-way battle between Adam Young and Shaun Moore, and from the off Western AC’s Moore made his intentions clear by setting a hot pace. Unfortunately he made a slight navigational error mid-race which cost him a few seconds, but he was quickly back ahead of his Manx Harriers rival. In the closing stages the pace began to tell and it was Young who finished the stronger, coming home with 6 seconds to spare to confirm the league title ahead of Moore. Alex Price had a great run to take 3rd place and to share the bronze medal for the series with the absent Jack Garrett.

Numbers were down in most of the junior races as many competitors had taken part in the Merseyside Schools Cross Country championships on the Wirral the previous day – although several did compete in both events. Among these was Sarah Astin, who followed her gold medal at Arrowe Park on Saturday with another superb run in the U15 Girls. She finished almost 2 minutes ahead of Maxine Smalley who also ran well on Saturday. Sarah had a race-long battle with Nathan Pierce from the U15 Boys class, who just managed to outsprint her in the dash to the line. Pierce’s win over Alex McQuarrie in the U15 Boys race clinched victory in the series, and reversed their finishing positions on Merseyside the previous day.

Following her Merseyside silver medal, Gemma Astin elected to compete in the Short Course race over 2 full laps to test herself against competitors from different categories. She spent most of the race in close company with Jordan Cain before upping the pace and pulling away from the U17 Men’s class winner in the closing stages.

Other winners in the junior age group categories were Alexandra Ross (U13 Girls) and Bronwen Kaneen (U17 Ladies).

The absence of many regulars actually helped to turn the 4-lap Senior/Veteran Men’s race into a classic. Nigel Armstrong, Gianni Epifani and Ed Gumbley were never more than a couple of strides apart on the first two laps, but in the early stages of lap 3 Epifani dropped off the pace a little, turning the contest into a two-horse race.

Gumbley had prepared for the race with a 16-mile training session the previous day whilst Armstrong had spent most of the previous 10 days lying on a Caribbean beach. Both approaches seemed to have been equally effective as they launched into a furious sprint finish at the end of the 4th and final lap. At the line, Gumbley had the edge by no more than half a stride, both athletes being given the same time.

Epifani took 3rd place 46 seconds in arrears, whilst some way behind him the top 6 were completed by Christian Varley (making his first appearance of the season), top race walker Peter Kaneen and the consistent James Broughton. There were some very praiseworthy efforts further down the field, none more so than that of Robbie Lambden. He has performed with great determination all winter, and here produced his best run of the season over 4 testing laps of the course.

Sarah Nelson was the convincing winner of the Ladies race, finishing almost 4 minutes clear of Janette Gledhill who has been a most welcome newcomer to cross country this winter. Ann Cain took 3rd place, which also confirmed a 3rd place finish for her in the series.

Grateful thanks are due to all the officials and helpers for their efforts on a most unpleasant wet, windy and cold day. Thanks also go to Douglas Corporation, Pulrose Football Club and Douglas Golf Club for the use of the course and facilities.

This is the end of domestic cross country for this season, and it has been another successful and well-supported series despite ongoing administrative problems. The date and venue for the Prize Presentation for both the Manx Gas Cross Challenge and the IOM Cross Country Championships will be confirmed shortly.

Mersey Marvels!

We really have just had a big weekend for local cross country runners. The final round of the Manx Gas Cross Challenge took place at Pulrose on Sunday, but the previous day a party of 19 athletes travelled to Arrowe Park on the Wirral to take part in the Merseyside Schools Cross Country championships.

A summary of individual performances is as follows:

Year 7 Girls (38 competitors)
5th - Alice Ashe

Year 8 & 9 Girls (43 competitors)
1st - Sarah Astin
3rd - Hannah Scarlett
19th - Maxine Smalley

Year 10 & 11 Girls (25 competitors)
2nd - Gemma Astin
9th - Rachael Franklin
11th - Rachael Johnstone
23rd - Leanne Garrett
(Team finished 4th)

Year 8 & 9 Boys (35 competitors)
8th - Nicholas Colburn
10th - Alex McQuarrie
13th - Nathan Pierce
15th - Anand Patel
26th - Jack Garrett
(Team finished 2nd)

Year 10 & 11 Boys (41 competitors)
13th - Michael Cherry
15th - Andrew Crennell
18th - Tom Kelly
33rd - Jamie Heaney
(team finished 5th)

Year 11 & 12 Boys (14 competitors)
4th - Louis Morris
5th - Sam Brand

There were obviously some terrific performances from the Isle of Man Schools runners, with yet another gold medal for Sarah Astin and a silver for Gemma Astin. However from looking through the results, my choice as the performance of the day would be Hannah Scarlett's brilliant 3rd place out of 43 in the Year 8 & 9 Girls race. Hannah has improved hugely this winter and I was most impressed with the way she ran in last month's Lancashire Championships. This was undoubtedly her best performance yet, and it will be interesting to see how she goes in the middle distance events on the track this summer. The course on Saturday was very short for the age group with a winning time of under 8 minutes, so this would suggest that Hannah has a lot of potential as a 1500m runner.

Excellent performances too from Louis Morris and Sam Brand in the Senior boys race. It would be good to see more of them both on the local athletics scene - they are rarely seen at local events these days.

No doubt several of the team will be receiving invitations to represent Merseyside Schools in the English Schools Championships on 8th March. This year's event is at Sefton Park in Liverpool, so it's within easy reach for the Isle of Man athletes. Let's hope plenty of them are selected!