Athletics: Harriers sail over final hurdle to strike

Sep 6 2007 by Phil Thomas, Liverpool Daily Post

HURDLERS were prominent as Liverpool Harriers finished third in the National Young Athletes League final at Birmingham.

In the under-17s there was a clean sweep as Jack Meredith, Liam Wilson, Abbie Bennett and Katie Jenkinson swept all before them to score maximum points in the short hurdles races.

Katarina Thompson weighed in with a trio of victories in the 200m, long jump and high jump, setting a meeting record 1.76 in the latter.

Although other A string victories were rare the team collected a number B string wins giving them top place in the girls’ competition and collected bronze overall in the joint event.

In the Inter-Region contest at Copthall, Ashley Helsby, representing the North, won the hurdles while Wirral’s Chris Smith was joined by Lain McCully to collect second place in the 800 and fourth place in the 400m. Adam Peers won the steeplechase.

James Meldrum (73.14), Glen Groves (76.23) and Alan Ashton (78.13) all took top ten places in the Pete Bland Lancaster Half Marathon, Maria Coughlan (Penny Lane Striders) finishing first lady in 88.59.

Ellesmere Port’s Chris Marshall travelled to the Midlands where he took a creditable eighth place in the Wolverhampton Marathon.

SouthportWaterloo’s Sue Cooper was second in the Rufford 10k, winning the over-50 prize, Steve James easily winning the over-65 award in a team led by new veteran David Hamilton. Samantha Dean-Howard was leading the women’s race until she sustained an ankle injury and had to drop out.

West Cheshire AC missed out on promotion to division one of the Northern Track and Field League when they were beaten by Bolton and Blackburn at Wavertree. Unfortunately, individual results are not available at this time.

West Cheshire hosted a poorly attended Cheshire League match at Stanney Oaks, finishing second to Crewe & Nantwich with Halton & Frodsham beating Wirral A C into fifth place.

Following the cancellation of their road race St Helens-Sutton made a last-minute decision to attend the match at Eccles finishing fourth in the men’s and women’s competitions and taking second place in the under-11s contest.

There are no local clubs involved in this weekend’s finals of the Northern Cup competition at Blackpool, although many local athletes will be attending the open meeting at the Stanley Park venue the following day.

Macclesfield is the venue for the Cheshire County and Open Multi-events competitions for which entries have now closed. Road r5aces include the Lake Vynwry Half Marathon in Powys, te Trafford 10k at Partington and the Ulverston Charter 5k in Cumbria.