Northern Bronze for our under 17s & 12 stage report
The Northern men’s 12 stage/women’s 6 stage and young athletes 5k championship took place on Saturday 28th March in Carlisle. It was a fair trek for our athletes, but we managed to field a strong under 17 men’s team and a senior men’s team in the 12 stage.
The course was flat and fast with a nice run along the river. The weather couldn’t make it’s mind up and made for challenging conditions from strong winds, heavy rain and sunny patches all mixed in.
Our under 17 men’s team were in action first with Oliver Walker, Marshall Fleet and Nathan Dunn going in the Young Athletes 5k. All three had brilliant runs, with Oliver first home in 11th (16.32), closely followed by Marshall in 12th (16.40) and Nathan in 21st (17.00). This was good enough for an amazing Bronze medal, well done boys!!
Left to right: Oliver, Nathan and Marshall
The aim for the senior men was to finish in the top 25 A teams to qualify for the National 12 stage relays in Birmingham 2 weeks later. There were 4 long legs of 7k (1, 3, 5 and 7) and 8 short legs of 5k. Mike Holness got us underway with a phenomenal first long leg coming home in 16th place in a very competitive field with a time of 21.34. The challenge for the rest of the team was to hang on! On our other long legs were Liam Browne (24.14), Brandon Kenyon-Betts (22.46) and Howard Oldham (24.12) all performing well.
Mike Holness on leg 1 - ECH fastest long leg of the day
Short legs were Tom McMahon (17.28), Jacob Eastwood (18.18), Joe Taylor (17.35), Gavin Browne (17.11), Andy Sykes (18.46), Mike Kennedy (19.04), James Hartshorne (19.43) and Jacob Taylor (19.27). The team finished a very creditable 23rd overall and 20th A team so the aim of qualification was accomplished!
Gavin Browne on leg 8 - ECH fastest short leg of the day
A big thank you to all the ECH family including Gary Matthews, Wade Copper and Martin Lewis our ECH coaches for making the long journey to support the team.