LSARRC Press Report 27th September 2011

The Northern Relays is the biggest road events in the area’s athletics' calendar and it was held on Saturday in Warrington. Over thirteen hundred runners from all over the North of England attended. This made for tough competition and high quality performances.

Lytham St. Annes RRC was well represented by a men's six and two women's teams of four. The men's team went off first with Terry Hellings taking the first leg. A good run ensured he finished the two-lap 6k in 23:51 before handing over to the team's fastest leg runner Andrew Draper who ran a competitive 21:29. Joe Shaw, Steve Qarmby and Tony Rudd followed in 25:37, 26:27 and 28:26 respectively. Tony handed over to the Club's top vet 55 runner Graham Webster who posted the team's second fastest time of 22:28 to bring the team back in a creditable 2:28:18 and 87th position.


Mel Koth and Pam Hardman ran the first leg for the ladies. With a winning team time of 1:07:09 for Morpeth Harriers and a fastest leg time of 15:41 it was always going to be a tough challenge. "A” team members Mel 19:37, Laura Ashworth, 21:05, Fiona Geldard, 23:15 and Linda Baxter, 21:22, did extremely well to finish ahead of twenty-seven other teams in 1:25:19 earning 37th position. Mel excelled with her run while Fiona justified her first “A” team selection by producing a personal best. "B” team runners Pam Hardman, Gillian Murphy, Rebecca Willetts and Dawn Lock finished in 23:34, 25:19, 24:19 and 33:03, a total of 1:46:15 to take 48th.



The track & field season reached its conclusion on Sunday with the second of the two September open meetings hosted by BW&F AC at Stanley Park. Five junior LSARR junior members competed with three making debut appearances for the club.

Simon Holt, at just seven years of age, showed great composure in all of his three events. In the U9bB 600m he ran a superb race to finish third in 2:19.5 and then in the Long Jump he was again on the podium taking another bronze medal for a 2.7m jump before just narrowly missing out on another bronze finishing 4th in the 80m in 14.1.


Ben Reid who moved up an age group into the U11’s ran a pb of 2:06 in the 600m to finish 9th and in the long jump he jumped 2.94m to finish 12th. In the 80m sprint he finished 6th in 12.5.


Track Debutant Rebecca Walker ran a brilliant first race in the U11gG 80m to finish 16th in 14.6. Ella Ross, another newcomer to the track, also ran superbly in the U11G 600m to finish 8th in 2:13.6.


The experienced U17 Kirsty Fraser ran a disciplined 800m to take the gold medal with a strong final 80m. She then turned her attention to the 100m, a distance she has not raced for 2 years. She won her heat in 13.6 to finish 3rd overall adding another medal to her tally.

On one of the busiest weekends for racing for some time 11-year-old Oliver Squire took part in his first triathlon, in Fleetwood. Despite using his gearless BMX bike against racing bikes Oliver still finished 37th from 48 in the T2 category. We know what Santa will bring to the Squire household this year.


Also on Sunday was the world’s most popular half-marathon, the Great North Run. Mark Willett and Simon Denye were running their fourth half-marathon in four weeks in aid of cancer research, leaving the biggest until last. Despite the crowds and other distractions, or possibly because of them, Mark smashed his personal best for the distance by over three minutes to finish in 1:25:48 earning 386th position. Simon was a couple of minutes behind in 516th place. To finish in these places out of 54,000 competitors is a great achievement.


Finally the Run Preston 10k and 5k races took place at the weekend. In the 10k leading club runner Matt Nutt finished sixth in 36:11. Veterans Peter Cruse and Graham Webster were 17th and 38th respectively out of a large field of over 700. In the 5k Pam Hardman and Bec Willetts were 87th and 90th.
Other Lytham results from the Preston 10k: Alistair Thornton 47:12, 166th; Fiona Geldard 53:53, 327th; Andrew Reid 55:48, 424th and Robert Goodall 1;01:59, 547th.