Mansfield Harriers impress at Summer League finale

The senior women have been leading throughout the competition and fielded a very strong team which won on the night and came away with a comfortable series win. Racing in the league for the first time this year Grace Manson ran strongly to take the win closely followed by Carolyn Hay who recorded the same time for 2nd place. Kath Malone and Paige Roadley have been the backbone of the team this series, racing and scoring in all five fixtures with Kath coming 6th and Paige 9th. The Masters were looking to chase down the lead held by Redhill, a strong team performance saw them place second on both the night and series. Helen Jones placed 11th, Helen Pritchett 24th, Sam Brown 28th and Claire Watson 43rd to complete the scoring team.

In a field of 154 women Gillian Newbould had to compete as a non-scorer for the team after her recent move to the club but will be a great addition going forward placing 15th, Amy Newbould had by far her best race of the year for 27th, Natasha Carver 48th, Sarah Bradbury 63rd, Holly Colton 65th, Bev Armstrong 67th, Gemma Bacon 93rd, Daisy Allsop 94th, Karen Kowalski 104th and Tina Copcutt 144th.

The senior men went into the final fixture with a small lead over Notts AC who put out a strong team to try and claw the deficit back. Notts had three athletes in the first four home but the theme of the season for Mansfield has been strength in depth and terrific packing ensured the club finished very close to Notts on the night and won the overall series. Kris Watson was the first athlete back in 5th with Sam Gilliver 6th, Alex Hamson 7th, Paul Wright 8th and Chris Patterson 10th. The masters have been dominant all season and another big performance saw another win on the night and win by a big margin through the series. For the masters team Jan Bailey placed 11th, Marlon Dunkley 19th, Dan Wheat 24th, Dave Cass 31st and Drew Hurst 36th.

A big field of 263 men and great packing was in evidence with Jordan Boam 12th, Lewis Boswell 13th, Dan Trainor 37th, Adam Wright 44th, Martin Fickling 47th, Dave Savage 50th, Paul Whittingham 51st, Darren Powell 52nd, Simon Kelly 56th, Jack Skillington 67th, Jamie Macintyre 73rd, Fraser Bain 76th, Jason Taylor 99th, Tom Newbould 115th, Paul Castledine 129th, Any Wetherill 135th, Joe Troman 142nd, Phil Beardsley 162nd, Mark Burr 196th, Vaughan Chamberlain 217th and Colin Sawers 249th.

Individually Chris Patterson took the Masters 35 gold and overall series silver with Kath Malone achieving gold in the female 45 age group and silver overall. Marlon Dunkley had a terrific series to take gold in the M45 age group. Siver medals went to Gillian Newbould in the F45 category and Andy Wetherill M65. Bronze medals went to Amy Newbould Junior, Helen Pritchett F35, Alex Hampson senior and Paul Whittingham M55.

Mansfield also had representation at two track meetings the same night competing at both Nuneaton and Charnwood. At the night of endurance at Nuneaton, racing over 1500 Jude Ryan recorded a new best time of 4.02.41 and Sophie Toyn a season best of 5.15.67. In the BMC 800 metre races at Charnwood Will Sullivan continues his impressive run of form recording a new best of 2.00.59, Eddie Holden won the same race in 1.59.88 and Florence Kenney was very close to her best in a fast heat recording 2.21.84. As we go to press the Open results have not come out yet, however Isla Millns and Lauren Pate put in terrific performances over 1500 with Lauren also racing over 100. Sophie Peet is another who has had a superb summer and was close to her best in both High Jump and 100 metres.