St Helens Sutton ACRoger McCall’s officiating skills have been recognised by UKA. Roger will be a field event official at the Senior/U20 Indoor Championships on 9/10 January, a call room steward at the British Indoor Championships at the end of that month and will revert to his role as a field event official for the Age-Group Indoor Championships on 12/13 March. There’s no telling how far one can go as an official given time. Congratulations to Roger.
General training at club nights take a break over Christmas as below.
Last session 2015 – Tuesday 22nd December 2015
First Session 2016 – Tuesday 5th January 2016
Note Training sessions may continue with individual coaches throughout the Christmas period, see your coach for details. In addition please note that Sutton Leisure Center is open until 4pm on 24th December 2015 and reopens on 2nd January 2016.
More wet than muddy!
Saturday 7th November 2015 saw the second Manchester Area Cross Country League held at Sherdley Park.
First off for the club was the under 11 boys and girls 2.5km race. This saw Lucy Bridge lead the girls home in 24th place in a time of 10.34, she was followed by Niamh Abbott who competed in her first cross country and finished in 37th place in 11.13. Also participating in their first cross countries were Libby Pearson and Kaitlin Hawsworth. Libby finished in 42nd place in 11.56 and Kaitlin finished in 44th in 12.28. The girls team finished 9th overall.
For the under 13 boys; Charlie Roberts took to the 3.5km race to finish in 18th place in a time of 12.44 whilst Michael Brussels finished in 24th place in 13.18 and Ben Toole: 29th place in 13.40. Liam Houghton completed the race in 36th place in 14.53. The boys team finished 7th. Under 13 girl, Shana Rigby, ran in her first cross country and finished 48th in 16.43.
Representing the under 15 girls- Lucy Price covered the distance of 5km in 24.12, finishing 12th and Chloe Orrick finished in 13th in 24.13.
The under 17 men’s team consisted of Anthony Walker, Ben Oldham, Joe Walker, Leon Hill and Lochlain Fisher. Antony completed the 6km course in 26.10 finishing 23rd, Ben finished in 25th in 26.34 and Joe finished in 26th place in 26.47. Leon completed the race to finish 29th in 28.00 and Lochlain finished in 31st place in a time of 29.32. The team finished 6th overall. Also in this race, Samantha Price represented the under 17 girls, she finished in 16th place in 29.32.
The senior ladies 8.5km race saw Gemma Connolly lead the ladies home in 15th place in a time of 30.49. Rachael Fairclough finished 17th in 31.17, Rachel McGoldrick finished 48th in 34.19 and Maddie Williams completed the race in 64th place in 35.18. Also Louise Hogg finished in 124th place in 39.29 and Carla Langley competed for the first time finishing in 156th place in 43.02. The ladies team finished 5th overall.
Finally, the senior men’s 10km race, Tom Griffiths finished 44th in 35.22, Steve Anders finished 77th in 37.07 and Greg Williams finished 90th in 37.46. Andy Wilson finished 101st in 38.32, John Appleton finished 109th in 39.00 and Ian Costello finished 165th in 41.10. Barry Graney ran out of time to catch Ian after Chris Dempsey woke him up and completed the race in 167th place in 41.14 followed by Ian Hayburn finished 210th in 43.10. Overall the men finished 16th and the vets team finished 11th (Andy, Ian, Barry and Ian).
Many thanks to all course setters and marshals- much appreciated!
Well done to all who competed!
See you all on Saturday 5th December at Boggart Hole Clough for the 3rd match
Those members who entered the London Marathon should have received their acceptance magazines by now. If you are unlucky enough to have received a rejection, you can apply to enter the ballot for one of the club places.
For the first call, as well as having a rejection from the ballot, applicants must currently be members of the club and have been so for one year. Please let your captain or the secretary know as soon as possible (with proof of rejection) if you want to apply.
As usual if there are any places not filled from this first call a further ballot of members wishing to be considered will be held, again let the secretary/captains know if you wish to be considered in any second ballot. In order to maximise training time the entries to the ballots will close at the end of this month.
The Snowdonia Marathon voted the best marathon in the UK twice and recognised as the toughest marathon in the UK. So, who would attempt the 26.2 miles and 1,700 feet of climbing? Well, over 1800 runners, including 5 runners from St Helens Sutton Athletic Club.
On Saturday the 24th of October Greg Carns, Sonya Moynihan, Mark Liptrot, Gary Oldham, Ian Roberts and Andy Wilson attempted the gruelling race in the cold wind and rain of North Wales.
The first half of the race is straight into the hills from Llanberis up through the infamous Pen Y Pass and down off road through the valley to Beddgelert. Then 13 more miles back on the roads – straight into the next hill to Pont Cae Gors. Finally, after 21 miles the last hill and what a hill! As Ian said “mountain goats would look at it and say, nah we’ll get the bus”. The steep downhill back to Llanberis offers little comfort to tired legs. The heavy rain made the grassy surface like ice. “It wouldn’t be a Vets day out without a visit to the first aid tent and Ian duly obliged after taking a flyer on the treacherous final descent” commented Mark.
An amazing finish by Andy, 3’05” coming 42nd and 11th in his age group. Then, followed by Greg at 3’30”, Mark in at 3’40”, Gary in at 3’58” and Ian at 4’05”. Sonya came in at 4’14” slower than last year’s 3’55” but still 18th in her age group. A great day out on an epic course!
Remember “great oak trees from little acorns grow” if you’re new to runing why not start small with a 5K like parkrun every Saturday at 9 am in Victoria Park.
Report from Gary Oldham
A couple of the men and a good turn out of our women ran in this, one of the last, road race in our internal competition.
Steve Anders bagged himself a PB and came in first Senior Male, 4th overall in a shade over 35 minutes (35:07), with John Greenall running well to come in third Vet in 37:58.
Amy Corfield kept up the top three finishes coming third Senior Female in 46:17, followed by Rachel Beesley in fourth (47 dead).
Rachel Wilcock ran well finishing in 48:52 (10th Senior) followed by Pam Appleton (6th vet in 52:41), Jane Ashcroft (13th vet in 53:48).
Karen Harrison beat the hour in 58:21, followed by Dot Fairhurst who was just over (1:03).
Janet Holmes ran 01:11:44 with Andrea Joyce and Kay Wilcock coming in together to complete a great ladies turnout in 1:18:35.
Darren Scott has capped off a fantastic year by winning the award for Halton Sports Person of the year.
Congratulations from your friends at Sutton.