Athletics: Forrester notches first in polished performance

Feb 14 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

DAVID FORRESTER (St Helens-Sutton AC) became the first athlete from a St Helens club since 1989 to win the Liverpool and District cross country individual title when he defeated Merseyside County Champion, Richard Burney (Liverpool) by 40 metres at Croxteth Park.

The race began in mist and ended in bright sunshine as Forrester showed international class to win, leading club mates Tony Smith, Greg Williams, Barry Graney, Ian Costello and Steve Tate to the silver medals for the second successive season.

Burney collected the team gold with support from third placed John McCole, James Meldrum, Rob Dewhirst, James Russell and David Catt all of whom finished in the first eight, only champion Forrester and fourth placed Murphy (LPS) preventing a Liverpool whitewash.

Xavier Desse, Phil Scarrett, John Hunt, Mark Hulmston, Andy Devoy and Keiron Keating earned Wirral third place, a tantalising six points behind the Saints with Liverpool Running Club, led by Paul Sankey, fourth.

There were more medals for St Helens-Sutton at the Manchester Area League the previous day when Gemma Connolly led the senior ladies into third spot for the season and earned herself a place in the Cheshire team for the inter-counties at Nottingham next month.

The Saints’ under-15s quartet of John Ashcroft, David T Griffiths, Jamie White and Danny Hughes completed the season undefeated to take the team award, Ashcroft finishing second individual overall.

The under-13s girls’ team of Rachel Wilcock, Vicky Lamb and Louise Hayes finished third overall.

LPS failed to finish a team at Croxteth Park but performed well at Hyndburn in the penultimate Mid Lancs League fixture.

Kyle Nicholls, Warren Turner, Andrew Hutchinson and Jonathan Bride pulled off a victory in the U13 team event. The U17s trio of David Forrester, Chris Hesketh and Tom Hanlon also won, while

Toby Loveridge was the individual winner of the U15s event and with Edward Rimmer, Sean Kirkbride and John Meakin finished second in the team event.

Kirsty Longley was sixth in the senior ladies’ race in which SouthportWaterloo’s Amanda Crook and Samantha Dean were second and fourth respectively.

The Sandgrounders picked up third team place in the under-17s ladies with Rhea Ellis, Stephanie James and Louise Leek taking the honours while Liam Ellis, Gary Clark, Sean Vis and Graham Boreham were similarly placed in the U13s boys’ event.

The Liverpool Harriers trio of Claire Murphy, Melissa Ronan and Sophie Whiteside won the junior ladies’ race, the club’s U13s quartet of Beth Tynan, Katie Bowers-Folan, Olivia Perez and Rachel Donohue also winning.