It Was a Big Day at the Races for Wesham on Saturday at the Northern Athletics Women S

Carl Groome end Eliot Costello battle it out on Stages 7 and 8 in Stanley Park

It was a big day at the races for Wesham on Saturday at the Northern Athletics Women’s 6-Stage and Men’s 12-Stage road relays which took place in Stanley Park in Blackpool. The club had two women’s and two men’s teams running. In the women’s 6-stage with two long legs of 9.5km and 4 at 5.2km, the Wesham women finished 38th in a combined time of 3:12:55, with Carmel Sullivan on the first long stage placing 37th in 42:34; Jess Coulthurst 43rd with 24:51 for the first short stage; Pauline Eccleston 44th in 29:01; Sue Coulthurst on the second long stage with 41:27 for 38th; Claire Jones 40th in 28:48 and Bernadette Dickinson anchoring the team on the last stage with 26:14. The ‘B’ team were lead out by Tracey Hulme 51st in 45:54; Caz Wadsworth 55th with 32:43; Anne Berry 53rd in 28:19; Kath Hoyer 49th on the second long stage in 45:05; Sue Rigby 50th in 32:55 with Diana Blagden bringing the team home in 49th place with 25:59 for a total time of 3:30:55. The men took on 12 stages with 4 at the long distance of 9.5km; Rob Danson had an excellent run on the first stage with 29:54 to place 10th; followed by Steve Waterhouse 16th in 18:08; James Mulvaney the second long stage with 33:11 for 22nd ; Steven Gore 28th in 20:41; David Taylor 30th with 34:39; Alan Hudson 36th in 21:59; Ugis Datavs 37th with 35:39; Eliot Costello 41st in 22:48; Phil Leaver 44th in 24:46; Jason Blagden 44th with 20:26 and Ben Wrigley finishing the team 47th with 25:13 for a combines time of 5:09:31. The ‘B’ team were 61st with 6:09:33 with Stuart Topping leading he way with 38:35 for 65th; Roger Leadbeater 58th with 19:12; Nigel Shepherd 66th in 42:17; Sean Murray 64th with 22:41; Alan Taylor 67th in 48:56; Dave Young 66th with 26:20; Carl Groome 65th in 29:19; Robert Danson 64th with 27:18; Peter Bartlett 63rd in 25:49; Peter Cooke 61st with 27:38 and Mark Renshall 61st with a flourish in 21:11.

Despite the relays there was a good contingent of Wesham runners at the Coniston 14 race in Cumbria on a beautiful day for Lakeland scenery. Lee Barlow was the first Wesham finisher in 43rd place with a time of 1:32:10 placing 10th M45. Paul Gregory was 48th in 1:33:17 followed by Paul Hetherington 60th in 1:34:36, 12th M40. Steve Myerscough was next in with 1:34:41, 62nd overall and 13th M40. Jason Barlow was close behind in 65th with 1:34:59 for 15th M45. Catherine Carrdus was 18th woman and 2nd W45 with 1:43:55, with Helen Lawrenson 23rd and 3rd W45 in 1:45:21, the pair 152nd and 170th overall. Nicola Unsworth was 32nd and 6th W45 in 1:48:14, 204th overall. John Bertenshaw finished 5th M60 and 227th overall well through his third decade in this event running 1:49:19. Martin Bates was 11th M60 and 289th with 1:52:57 and Paul Carter 893rd in 2:24:32. Tanya Barlow was 308th woman in 2:29:32 and Finlay McCalman 1062nd with 2:44:53.

There was a choice of 9 miles or 17 miles in the Muddy Bottoms cross-country navigational events on Sunday from Caldervale and out and about into the Brock valley. Steve and Debbie Myerscough chose the shorter distance and finished together in 10th and 11th places with a tine of 1:59 49 (Debbie) and 1:59:54 (Steve).

Phil Leaver ran the Cheshire 10k at Arley Hall on Sunday, finishing 446th in 51:04 and placing 14th M60.

In the Lytham Hall parkrun this week Ben Wrigley ran 24:42 for an M35 age graded performance of 53.71%. Sharon Cooper clocked 26:18 for a W40 59.38% and Graham Cunliffe 27:33 for M60 58.20%. Emma Davies recorded 29:27 for 50:25%; Ashleigh Coles 30:47 with 48.08% and Debbie Bell 34:19 for W40 45.51%. In the Preston parkrun David Taylor warmed up for the Northern Relays with 21:07 for a relaxed 61.25%; Vicky Gore 25:23 for W40 60.60% and Robert Brown 25:30 with M55 62.35%. Simon Denye ran the Blackpool run in 22:30 (M40 62.07%); Anne Flanagan 30:37 for W55 61.62%; Mark Bellfield 31:56 with M35 41.28% and George Flanagan 35:09 with M65 48.60%.