THE WEEK'S NEWS 4th July 2023

THEA BROWN FOR COMMONWEALTH YOUTH GAMES

It's official! THEA BROWN is selected to represent GB & N1 at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad & Tobago between August 4th – 11th. She'll compete in the 100m Hurdles, High Jump and 4 x 100m mixed relay. This is Thea's finest hour in her burgeoning career and a great tribute to her immense talent, her coaches including Sale's DAVE LOWE and to her family and training groups.

OLIVIA GREEN'S DAY TO REMEMBER

Another whose finest hour it is is OLIVIA GREEN. Competing for Team GB in the Modern Pentathlon at the European Games in Krakow, Poland, she won brilliant bronze, her first senior individual medal. In a scintillating and very hard-fought final she came away with not just with the bronze medal but was the top Brit and a qualification spot for the Olympic Games. Most pleasing of all was the final event, the run-shoot when, after starting in 11th she ran up to 2nd, with her total run time being the fastest of the day. Her running honed as a Sale Harrier, won her the podium place! She also helped the GB team to secure three team medals. (NB. Though she's qualified for the Olympics she's not yet guaranteed a place. If more than 2 British athletes qualify for the Games, then the decision as to who will be going will be made next year....so fingers crossed). Her boyfriend, Olympic and World champion Joe Choong also won silver and hopefully both have punched their tickets to Paris. Olivia is based at the University Of Bath Centre Of Excellence with the GB Pentathlon team.

OONAGH IS EUROPEAN BIATHLE CHAMPION

OONAGH Mc MANUS became the U15 European Biathlon Champion. At the championships in Erding, Munich she raced superbly with a very strong first 800m run and entered the lake in 1st place. Her swim was awesome gaining about 10 metres on 2nd place and in her 2nd run she opened up a 50 meter gap to comfortably win and be crowned U15 European Champion.

In the run up to the Championship, she'd won her first Triathlon in Lytham St Anne’s and qualified for the NW team to compete at the National championships at Mallory Park in September

ENGLAND SCHOOLS CHAMPIONS

Every school-aged athlete's sporting pinnacle are the ESAA English Schools championships. Known as the 'Kid's Olympics', this year they were held at the Alexander Stadium Birmingham . We don't yet know who all the successful Sale athletics are since the official results are not yet available. As soon as they are we'll be applauding them from the rooftops. However we do know of some who've been very successful and BIG congratulations not just to them but to their coaches and very proud parents. IMOGEN HILL became the English Schools Junior Girls 800m Champion, GABRIELLE GARBER became the senior High Jump Champion, improving on last year's bronze medal. HERMIONE MASON retained her senior girls 400m Hurdles silver medal and JASMINE RICHARDSON retained her senior bronze medal in the hammer and FREYA DOCKERTY also won senior bronze in the 100m Hurdles. Well done to their top-class coaches KAREN HILL & PETE SHAW, JESS TAYLOR-JEMMETT, ALEX WORT and LEE DOYLE.

A SAVAGE PB

Two weeks after winning bronze at the England U20 Championships ELLIOT SAVAGE again dipped under fifty seconds for 800m at the BMC meeting in Watford recording a great new PB of 1:49 46 that now ranks him 4th nationally. (He would have become the England Champion with this time).Elliot is coached at Wythenshawe by NORMAN POOLE.

CHRIS FIELDS NORTHERN IRELAND BRONZE

CHRIS FIELDING made a really worthwhile return to his Northern Ireland homeland for the N I & Ulster Senior Championship. Arguably his proudest achievement to date, he became the NI 5000m bronze medallist with a PB of 14.45.22. Chris is his first year with Sale Harriers.

LADIES SMASH WELSH CASTLES

A few weeks after the endurance section's Welsh Castles Relay – the 2 day, 20 stage, 209 mile relay the length of Wales from Caernarfon to Cardiff and arguably the biggest event in the Endurance Section's calendar, a full report and the club's women clinching a magnificent 2^nd place is now on the club's website.

NORTHERN LEAGUE DISAPPOINTMENT

The weekend's disappointment was the club lowly 2nd to last in its penultimate Northern League match at Blackburn. The result has nothing whatsoever to do with those club stalwarts who ran, jumped, threw and hurdled their hearts out (You should have seen them!) but they were badly let down by their club colleagues. The club is far from achieving its potential in its league commitments and every Sale Harrier - athletes, coach and parent have to take a collective responsibility. It's YOUR club! The club has the resources to win these matches as it proved in its 1st match in May at Ellesmere Port.

Welsh heroes and heroines

by Steve McCarron

June 10^th and 11^th 2023 saw the return of the Welsh Castles Relays – arguably the biggest event in the Endurance Section calendar where running meets a Grand Tour style cycling event. It’s a 2 day, 20 stage, 209 mile staggered relay stage race, held mostly on road but with many hills and mountains en route from Caernarfon to Cardiff. Each stage is a race in itself with the opportunity to win a yellow jersey, or more importantly to run your fastest time for the overall position of your team

This year Sale had 2 teams - a Women’s team and an Open team, masterminded by team captains Edwards and Donners, and the invisible string pulling of Helen Carter.

Despite recent past glories, the Open team had been decimated by injury this year, and the surviving squad knew they had limited chance at the overall team prize. For the Open team, this would be a year of going for the odd stage upset and having a bit of fun along the way.

The women on the hand had one of their strongest teams to date. Despite the absence of a couple of hotshots, the strength in depth was impressive. For them it was game on.

To make things more interesting -this was set to be a blazing hot weekend, with temperatures in the high 20s, and humidity levels strong. With Stages averaging 10 miles and many of those in the peak of the afternoon heat, could our runners manage their pre-race adrenaline by not going out too hard and exploding in the sun?

Day 1

By the end of leg 1, the pattern was set – Emma Finney threw a marker down for Sale’s ladies by putting the team in the lead, whilst an injury laden Gough managed a respectable 13^th.

Leg 2 - saw Ken Hunt run a blistering leg by finishing 2^nd overall shunting the Open team back up the leader board. Wendy Terry also ran well in the heat, keeping the Ladies in the top 2.

In the first mountain leg Bea Cordingley built on her brilliant breakthrough year, by finishing in an extraordinary 3^rd – keeping the ladies in 2^nd overall, and pushing Chorlton back into 3^rd.

The mighty Phil Robertson finished 2nd for the Open team putting them into 5^th.

Then came leg 4. Clare McCarron off the back of antibiotics and a chest infection, and Tom Stephenson looking to capitalise on his Boston Marathon fitness. McCarron defied the odds in an epic tussle in the lead group. On another day she might have won it but perhaps inevitably faded in the final mile for a respectable 3^rd place. Stephenson showed his marathon pedigree and excelled in the heat claiming what was to be SHMs only stage win of the weekend.

Leg 5 saw the Grand Dame of the Cordingley dynasty show the field how you do it with an expertly paced run. Pete Shipley following a long layoff showed us that he is almost back, by maintaining position for the Open team and finishing 5^th.

Suzanne Smith and Paul Barrett ran at the hottest time of the day. Suzanne had a fantastic run pushing the ladies back into 2^nd ahead of Chorlton again. With Les Croupiers starting to open a gap as the leading team, the tussle between Chorlton and Sale for that prestigious second place was on. Paul Barrett did a heroic turn having been drafted in the team with only a couple of days notice, enabling us to hold on to 5^th place overall.

Next came arguably the most brutal stage of the weekend – leg 7 - a 5 mile uphill climb followed by a quad trashing descent. Rachel took on the punishing leg for the Ladies finishing in a respectable 4^th, while Rob Dunn was 1^st vet by a narrow 16 seconds, bagging him a prestigious mountain dragon for his efforts.

Then came leg 8, the mountainous leg that isn’t a mountain leg.   Jenny Southworth climbed the hills for the ladies, having to overcome foot pains most of the way around, whilst Mike Ashby capitalised on his BGR training by finishing a respectable 9^th.

Leg 9 saw Ladies Team manager Eddie Edwards and Sinead Ferguson take the stage. Sinead had one of her best runs of recent times despite the heat and claimed 3^rd place. Eddie after a long layoff was no where near in race shape, but had heroically agreed to help the injury struck Open team. He paced it conservatively in the first half, but grew with confidence as the race progressed, moving through the field and finishing in a satisfying 12^th place.

Then came the final leg of the day – the iconic leg 10 mountain stage into Newtown.

Heather Hughes in her debut was running for Ladies – and what a debut – finishing 4^th and smashing 4 mins out of Chorlton.

In the Open team race, the stage was set, with the great and good of the Manchester men’s endurance scene coming together in a Welsh Battle Royale. Salford’s Callum Rowlinson, and Chorlton’s Gavin Tomlinson, up against our own superstar Nick Barry. Nick paced his race brilliantly in the heat, overcoming mountains, hay fever, and his Salford rival to finish 4^th.

By the end of Day 1, Sales Ladies were 3^rd and the men in 5^th. All to play for…

Day 2

Leg 11 - With a brutally early start time of 7 a.m. this is a Stage you only get to see by actually getting up and running it, leaving your teammates chewing on rubbery croissants back at the campsite. Even, Donners, the clubs’ most committed hill-slayer, was surprised by the amount of climb, reflecting on his performance afterwards: ‘there was more hill then expected, blew up and died.’ There were no such explosions for the Ladies team, however, where some impressively even pacing saw us bag 5^th place, and hold 3^rd position overall.

Leg 12

In form WCR debutante Andrew Curvis romped home in 6^th, taking a Chorlton scalp along the way. Sarah Goulden was also strong making up a vital 22s on Chorlton in the chase for 2^nd place.

Leg 13

Another WCR debutante, Max Kidd-Rossiter, had a great introduction to the event claiming 5^th place on this leg, with his Ladies counterpart Harriet Hamilton also running well and holding 3^rd position for the team

Leg 14 – Steve McCarron had the privilege of running the iconic Drovers leg for the Open team following a couple of high profile dropouts. Having succumbed to the dreaded lurgy a couple of days before he ran the first half respectfully, before opening up the pipes during the climb. It was a case of job done, but not the max effort that such a leg deserves. Drovers veteran Hayley Ashby had no such respect, and ran it hard from the off – snapping at Chorlton’s heels and keeping that chase for 2^nd very much on.

Leg 15 – a long and brutal leg with just enough quad trashing downhill to make the final uphill a truly miserable affair. Jenny Fox battled with ex-SHM favourite Janneke, now of Les Croupiers, for 2^nd place, but the downhills took their toll and the Les Croupier athlete pulled away in the last mile last mile (more downhill specific training next year Jenny?). Spraggy was typically brave finishing 9^th, whilst emitting some characteristic grunts and impressive grimaces in his sprint finish, to the appreciative applause of the SHM posse.

Leg 16 – superstar SHM couple, Wright (Ladies) and Godwood (Open), took on the newest and final Mountain stage of the day. This leg would be a turning point for the Ladies team, with Alice Wright smashing the course record by 2mins and 25s, and more significantly, taking a whopping 14 mins out of the Chorlton athlete. Silver medals had looked like a lost cause, but now the race was back on! For Joe this was about restoring pride for an understrength Open team, and he did just that, finishing in 8^th position, in one of the toughest stages of the weekend       

Leg 17 – Being a difficult leg to drive through and support, it can be lonely slog for the runner. Our Sale pair did their job for the team eschewing the glory of adoring fans, for the internal reward of hard graft. Smalley got himself a top 10 finish, whilst the Ladies finished 3^rd. Two more fine runs!

Leg 18 – Call-ups for the injury re-habbing Anne Chinoy, and unconditioned Chris Tait – saw these 2 Sale Harriers putting club duty ahead of personal interest. Neither were in race condition, but both gave everything to keep their teams in the race.

Leg 19 – Sale Harriers lucky charm Tracy Taylor does it again. After her heroics at Calderdale where she stepped up with 10 mins notice to help the team to victory, she makes another significant contribution to club glory, by finishing second, and smashing 9 mins out of Chorlton. After 11 stages of nipping at the heels of Chorlton’s second place, Tracey’s effort is enough to push us ahead of them for the first time since Leg 6.

Not to be outdone, in leg 19, Dr. Fox ignored all sage advice in a pre-race pep talk, by exploding off the start line in the lead group. He then defied expectations by not ‘blowing up’, and pacing himself to an impressive 8^th – and outsprinting Chorlton by 8 seconds. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that.

And so to the grande finale - leg 20. For the Open team this would be a parade. With nothing at stake and the pressure off, Ollie Bartlett enjoyed his procession. Ollie secured 9^th place for the Open teem overall, however, if there was a prize for best photo of the weekend, surely he would’ve won it be a welsh country mile.

But for the Ladies, everything was at stake on this leg. Sale would now need to defend a 7 min lead to hold second place against local rivals Chorlton. With club superstar Big Nige laid up at home, licking his hamstring, it was time for the other Martin – Laura to take centre stage. Handling the pressure with aplomb she put herself in front of Chorlton and stayed there, securing those silver medals for the team.

It was another fabulous weekend, replete with special memories, sub plots, and twists and turns. But perhaps it will be best remembered for the blistering heat, Brian Goulden’s uncanny ability to show up in several places at once, and of course those lovely silver medals. A big thank you to all who took part, all partners and families who gave up a sunny weekend to watch their person of interest and to all the helpers and drivers who know who they are. Cheers.

So, let’s look to next year. We need more. More memories and more medals. Can the women get gold? Can the Open team get back on the podium? Or may be it is time for the Vets…..? Bring it on!

Full results

WCR 2023

Ladies Team

Wendy Terry

Wcr

Vets Stage Win

Sinead And Eddie

Run

Racheal

Oliver Bartlett

Leg 18

Leg 3

Laura Martin

Jenny Fox

Jenny And Mike

Jackie And Peter

Emma Finney

Drink

Donners And Ed

Claire

Bea

Anne Chinoy

Alice And Joe

YDL (Lower) (Match 2)

Pete Shaw

Our U13 girls were our most successful team with eight victories.  EVA ANWYL, LILY VALENTINE and ANNABEL LAMA each took part in the maximum allowed four events and teamed up with BROOKE CARROLL-IVISON to win the relay. Annabel won the Shot Putt whilst Lily had two sprint victories and Eva was again the only athlete from any club to achieve the highest level 9 performances in three events. BEA SOPER, currently 3^rd in her age-group national rankings, led from gun to tape to win the 1200m and, with CAITHLIN WETTERS improving her PB by four seconds to win the B race, she placed 8^th in the UK. ROBYN HEYWOOD-YOUNG improved her PB by a large margin to finish runner-up in the 800m.

In the U15 girl's group NIAMH RIDLER, LOLA RICHARDSON and ELEANOR ROURKE each took part in four events with Niamh winning a sprint double. IMOGEN HILL impressed with a tactical 800m race win, sprinting away from the field in the last 100m. OONAGH Mc MANUS and IZZY HALL both ran PB's in finishing runner's up in 1500m races. Imogen, Izzy and Oonagh teamed up with HANNAH SQUIBBS to win the 4 x 300m relay.

ALEX FRASER smashed his PB to win the U15 boys 1500m whilst LIAM O'BRIEN finished runner's up in the hurdles. Liam, along with DAN OAKES, KARLO MILLS, MATTHEW ADENUGA and ALPHIE DICKS all competed in four events.

OLIVER HOWELL was our star in the U13 boy's events competing in four events and finishing runners-up in three. ISAAC WRIGLEY competed in four events and teamed up with Oliver, DAN WELLS and GEORGE HORSFALL to finish runners up in the relay.

Sale finished 4^th from six teams, scoring twenty-five points better than the first match. A massive thanks to team manager CARL WORTHINGTON and the T & F Officials.

MIKE DUNNE

It is with great, great sadness I announce the news of the death of active club member Mike Dunne. Mike wasn't just a friend to all of us who knew him over a lifetime but he was an active club member since he joined the club in the early 1960's and, as his successful competitive days faded, he continued contributing to the life of Sale Harriers to such an extent that last year Sale Harriers honoured him with Life Membership.

Mike never stopped running, the emergence of the Saturday Parkruns and the Sunday ‘community runs’, kept him involved in running and he ran his 400th Parkrun in December 2022. Throughout he was totally uncomplaining regards his health.

Last summer in the club's promotion of the Sizzler 4 x 5k races he was my right-hand man as the course director, a job he did with brilliant, no nonsense efficiency. He'd be at the track setting up soon after sunrise and have much of the work done even before his colleagues arrived to help him and he'd always be the last to leave after the races, thorough to the end showing initiative, leadership and organizational ability second to none, ready always to do the menial tasks himself.

Mike was pivotal in helping establish the weekly Sunday Wythenshawe Community 5k and again he generously used his knowledge, skills and experience to ensure its growth and success.

Mike has devoted his whole life to Sale Harriers and especially those who were his friends and colleagues are heart-broken...... and bewildered that a man so much in the throes of life, so fit and so very active should be taken from us. Fechin McCormick.

Mike Dunne

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Mike Dunne

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