Mansfield Harriers winter of success continues
Mansfield Harriers went into the final fixture of the prestigious North Midlands League knowing that one last push would result in another successful league campaign for the club.
The Bulwell Hall course was challenging however the club put in stellar performances across the age groups to come away with six team wins out of the twelve categories with a further three second places and several individual awards.
The men went into the last fixture leading the senior section and 4th in the Masters but within striking distance. For the seniors Alex Hampson put in a superb run for 2nd, with solid runs throughout as Dan Nugent placed 17th, Jordan Boam 24th, Dan Wheat 25th, Chris Kilburn 34th, Dave Cass 41st, Joe Henstock 66th and Jamie Macintyre 70th. The strongest possible Masters team was declared with Kris Watson who had his best run of the winter 5th, Chris Patterson 9th and Jan Bailey 14th. These teams and a terrific squad performance throughout the series saw Mansfield take the team titles in both age groups. A superb series from Dave also saw him take the M50 series title with Dan Nugent 2nd in the M45 age group.
The ladies put in a great performance throughout the series, placing 2nd in the senior age group and taking the win in the Masters series. Hayley Gill was first back in 7th followed by Hannah Wragg 19th, Alice Mortiboy 21st, Kath Malone 26th, Lottie Riddle having her best run in a Mansfield vest to date 28th, Sophie Toyn 30th, Cristina Dinescu 32nd, Gillian Newbould 33rd, Sam Brown 59th and Sharon Armitage 78th. Individually Hayley placed 2nd overall and 1st F45, Sophie was 1st Under 20, Sam 1st F50, Cristina 2nd F40, Kath 2nd F45 and Gillian 3rd F45.
Four wins in the four races saw Jacob Nugent take the individual award at Under 17 and his season long performance also earned him the Presidents award as the outstanding athlete of the series. With Oliver Buglass racing well for 10th. The club had no third finisher and had to take the last place plus one for the third scorer. In the narrowest of finishes Mansfield won by one point over the four races and came away with another team trophy. Under 17 girls placed 2nd overall with Katie Leese getting better with every race placing 5th, Amelia Arbon returning after illness 6th and Amy Newbould 11th.
Under 15 girls had another strong turnout with Charley Whysall taking the win supported with terrific runs from Lily Mason 5th, Isla Millns 6th and Martha Walker 17th. The team took the team trophy comfortably with Charley taking the individual series, Lily 2nd and Isla 4th. The under 15 boys had a strong team out and placed second in the series. Superb individual runs from Jack Pares 2nd, Ollie McClemens 4th, Dan Adams 14th, Teddy Macintyre 17th and Xander Arbon 31st, with Jack taking gold in the individual standings and Ollie bronze.
With her trademark finish Olivia Wright ran away from her nearest rival in the last 400 metres to take the win and the overall individual series in the Under 13 age group. She was backed up with impressive runs from Lauren Pate 9th, Maisie Lowe 12th and Catherine Rivis 13th. Great team packing saw the team also win after a season long battle with Wreake. In the Under 13 boys the club only had one competitor with Will McClemens placing a solid 17th. The Under 11's only had one athlete in each race and after finishing 6th in the first three races Esme Evans had her career best run to date to place 1st after a thrilling sprint finish. Jack Whysall ran strongly in the boys race placing a pleasing 9th confirming his recent improvement.
On the same weekend Mansfield had a double header with a BDL fixture on the Sunday at the challenging Bramcote Hills course. Team manager Andy Walker rallied the troops, got 23 athletes out and after four races are leading in all three categories, ladies, men and combined.
For the men fresh from his award the day before, under 17 Jacob Nugent put in another impressive shift to take a comfortable win with fantastic packing seeing Mike Blair 2nd, Dan Nugent 4th, Simon Fisher 5th, Matt Bottomore 7th, Ollie McClemens 8th, Reece Carver 10th, Simon Kelly 19th, George Holden 39th, Ben McClemens 43rd, Phil Shaw 45th, Richard Holden 56th, Geoff Bottomore 62nd, Andy Walker 72nd, Tom Newbould 108th, James Mee 120th and Shaun Arrowsmith 141st. Mike leads the overall series and M45 age group with Matt in contention for the M40, Geoff and Phil in contention for the M60 and M55 respectively. Both Ollie and Reece are in contention for medals in the junior category.
A fantastic run from Alice Mortiboy saw her place 4th on the day closely followed by Emily Pares 6th, Hannah Wragg 7th, Helen Jones 14th, Amy Newbould 24th and Natash Carver 30th. With one race to go Emily has already won the junior category and is neck and neck with Hannah for the overall title.
On the roads Paige Hampson travelled to York to compete in the Brass Monkey Half Marathon. After a successful block of training Paige was looking for a sub 90 minute run and after an exemplary exhibition of pacing came away with a massive best time of 1.28.14. Steve Davies travels to Japan to race the Tokyo marathon in early March and used the Folksworth 15 as his preparation race and was delighted with his time of 2.28.19. Racing the Sherwood New Year 10K, Carolyn Hay put in an exceptional run to record 39.18 to both win the F50 and overall ladies race. Nicola Hubbard recorded 48.15, Barbara Stevens 51.52 to also take the F65 age group and Maddy Collinge 68.40. In the 5K race Christie Burton recorded 32.29.
Several club athletes took to the indoor circuit with athletes racing at both Sheffield and Loughborough. Racing at the BMC Sheffield Grand Prix three of Mansfield’s middle distance stars had superb runs to record new best times over 1500. Johar Ali recorded 3.58.96, Jude Ryan 3.59.42 and Ed Sankey 4.01.83. Showing a pleasing return to form Beth Hamilton recorded her best time at 800 metres for over two years with a 2.19.35. Racing at the Loughborough Indoor meeting Matt Smart confirmed his recent form over 60 recording a new best time of 6.87. Another athlete wintering well is Under 15 Sophie Peat who recorded new best times in the 60 recording 8.81 and 60 Hurdles 9.97. Also, in the 60 Hurdles Stef Wilcockson and Katie Biggs both recorded seasons bests of 9.20 and 10.75. Completing the line up Ben Lowe cleared 1.63 metres in the High Jump.