Mansfield athletes impress at Manchester Half Marathon

The race had close to 16,000 entries and the Mansfield competitors came away with a string of impressive performances.

Neil Halstead has shown great improvement this year and been a great club athlete racing on Track, Road and Cross Country and can be seen week in week out pushing himself to the limit at club training.

Neil had a terrific race at Manchester with all his hard work paying off as he produced a massive personal best of 1.34.51.

Kristian Watson and Drew Hurst used the race as a fitness indicator on the road to the Valencia Marathon.

With both currently in the middle of a big training block they put in superb runs with Kristian finishing 15th overall and first Master 35, recording 68.34 for the 13.1 miles,

Meanwhile Drew a personal best and first sub-80 recording for the distance with 77.47.

Jordan Boam was another who came away with a big improvement in his personal best with 73.08 closely followed by Dan Nugent who recorded 74.52.

Greg Holden was another rewarded for his graft in training, dipping under 90 minutes with a personal best time of 89.10.

Claire Watson recorded a comfortable 1.46.46, Phil Beardsley dipped under 1.50 for the first time for a personal best of 1.46.50 and club legend Steve Davies completed in 2.07.14.

Racing at the Thoresby Leaf event, junior Amelia Arbon had the race of her life as she won the senior ladies 10K event and placed third overall in the 10K race, recording 47.07.

Gemma Bacon finished 11th lady and fourth Master 40 in 57.46 while Sue Lomas won the Masters 60 age group and 28th overall in 65.01.

Racing in the 5K event Wayne Lowe had a very strong run, placing second overall in 20.26.

The second of this winter's Notts Mini League cross country league was held at Berry Hill Park on a glorious Sunday morning with the course showing very few signs of the impact of Storm Babet.

The fixture was a close encounter again between Mansfield and Rushcliffe with Mansfield stronger in the girls and Rushcliffe the boys teams.

Jack Pares put in another terrific performance, winning the U15 boys comfortably with Oliver Mcclemens showing great courage to place fourth and Oliver Buglass completing the team in 11th place.

Teddy Macintyre had a great run for fourth in the U13 boys with Will Mcclemens 11th and Chris Nixon 13th.

The U11s had Jack Whysall first Harrier home in 14th with William Kenney 19th, Harry Puwell 20th and Keegan Cranson 22nd.

Mansfield won all three age groups in the girls races as Martha Manson repeated her win at the first race with another strong front running performance at U11, with debutant Olivia Fletcher third, Catherine Rivas fifth, Esme Evans sixth, Erin Pugh ninth, Lauren Pate 12th, Bella Pilmore 17th and Lottie Wright 19th.

The U13 age group had Charley Whysall second and Evie Clifton third after a superb three way race and Isla Millns fourth, closing the team.

Such is the strength of depth Myanie Westwood placed fifth, Olivia Wright eighth Maisie Lowe 16th and Maisey Gill 17th.

Another fantastic team result at U15 had Maisy Slack second, Lily Mason third, Amelia Arbon fourth, Emily Pares sixth, Florence Kenney ninth, Libby Cooper 12th and Martha Walker 14th.