SYCC League – the final race of the league took place at Doncaster Racing college.
Silver for the girls plus two individual golds at the South Yorkshire Cross Country Championships
The presentation of awards seem to go on for ages after the event, the only surprise being that Kimberworth took silver medals behind Rotherham Harriers in the womens event. It was in fact an error, and our leading four girls should get their medals in due course.
Let’s start with them at a cold and exposed Northern Racing College course near Doncaster, venue for the Yorkshire CC Championships earlier on in the year, and the Yorkshire Veterans Championships in February. The two lap 6km course saw the Rotherham girls occupy the first three positions led home by Jade Allen in 25.16 followed by a posse of three from Hallamshire with just Kimberworth’s Lindsey Gray splitting them in 6th place.
Rachel Kane led our girls home in 8th place in 26.27, with Jenny Horne in 12th place with 26.59 just failing to get the better of Kimberworth’s Claire Spencer. Clare Thompson chased Kimberworth’s Samantha Jones all the way for 18th in 27.43, but with Helen Pickford claiming 21st in 28.45 she finished 8 places ahead of Kimberworth’s Faye Bird to clinch the silver medals with 59 points to Kimberworth’s 62.
Hallamshire looked certain medal contenders but with their final scorer down in 52nd position they never were in contention. Laura Inglis worked her way through the field to finish strongly in 31st with 30.37, and good to see Maria Hardy back on the country with 51st in 34.49. Marilyn Whittle and Bev Baker helped each other round to finish 62nd and 63rd respectively in 37.39 and 37.41 in a field of 80 athletes. Jenny finished 7th, Laura 9th and Marilyn 18th in the final league placings for senior women. Bev took 12th place in the F35 category.
Now the men was all about a pint of beer. Yes, Chris and Will bet each other a pint on the outcome of their personal battle. Hope you enjoyed it Chris!!
The race went to form, with Will taking the initiative on the first lap before Chris passed him on lap 2. The third and final lap of the 9km course saw Will making a herculian effort to catch Chris, falling just 3 seconds short. Chris Ireland finished 25th in 36.43 for the 9km course, with Will Beauchamp 26th in 36.46 behind winner Rob Little of Hallamshire in 33.37 who led Hallamshire to the title.
Trevor Neville was a solid 45th in 38.51, Jed Turner 65th in 40.20, Ian A-B 72nd in 41.00 and Gary Baker made the scoring six finishing 75th in 41.29 giving SRC 308 points and 7th place in the championship. Gary Podmore suffered on the final lap dropping out, and Nigel Kent completed his second SYCC finishing 127th in 48.08.
Chris Ireland took the M50 title and overall league winner. Ian A-B was 11th and Gary Baker 12th M40 in the league. Jed Turner placed 6th M50 in the league. Will Beachamp finished 12th Senior Man and Trevor Neville 17th.
Now to the star turn. Steve Tanner rejoined SRC 6 months ago and trained hard to prepare himself for the rigours of cross country. Having finished in 2nd place at the previous race at Spinkhill, he dug in hard to take the M65 title from Rotherham’s Mick Cochrane and Barnsley AC’s Rod Scholes in a time of 30.21 for the 6km course.
So, with two individual gold medals, and team silver for the girls it was a great day out for SRC. The icing on the cake was securing the second promotion spot just behind the University of Sheffield to Division 1.
Our goal for 2012 will be to ensure we maximise our points tally to maintain our division 1 status.
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