Gwent League

Newport Harriers Gwent League

Gwent League Cross-Country
Penlan Leisure Centre, Brecon 14th February 2009

Senior Men (203 starters) – big turnout for Newport ends their relegation fears

Newport Harriers fielded a full 8-man squad for only the second time this season which enabled us to pull clear of our relegation rivals and with one race to go our Division 1 status will be preserved for another season.

With Neil Hardee out with a bad chest Dave Goodger was once again our top finisher in 49th place. This puts Dave 24th on the overall leader board and he has started to think that maybe cross-country is his true running vocation. Dave Griffiths (80th) and Darryn McAtee (99th) both provided strong runs to ensure Newport had three finishers in the top 100.

Behind them there was some good honest teamwork going on. Stuart Pearce (119th) began perkily before fading until he received some encouragement from Steve Wadley (116th). Steve meanwhile tucked in behind Malcolm Medhurst (117th) before outkicking his unsuspecting team-mate in the final stretch. Lee Richards completed the middle-order in 121st place.

Completing the A team was Dave Proffitt (172nd) followed by our sole B team runner Richard Bowie (196th). This was Richard’s club debut but he has already been marked down as a squad member for the upcoming Masters road relay championships.

NEWPORT HARRIERS YOUNGSTERS SHINE AT BRECON GWENT LEAGUE

Newport’s talented team of young cross country runners continued to show the seniors in the club how to run in cross country races by recording a number of fine results in the fourth Gwent League cross country fixture held at Brecon.

In the Novice age group for under 11 athletes, the girls race saw Amelia Reynolds running a very strong race to finish an excellent fourth place and Emma Lighthart finishing in 20th place. Emma will go into the final fixture in 9th place overall. In the boys race Newport, Carwyn Penny was a fabulous 3rd following in a great family tradition and Edward O Keefe again showed his potential to finish in 11th place and goes into the final fixture in an excellent 5th place overall.

In the very competitive under 13 boys race Newport’s Liam Bradley finished in 9th, his team mate Jack Fear 10th and with Luke Gill in 19th they held onto the 3rd place overall in the team competition and will go into the final fixture with an excellent chance of securing a medal. Individually Liam is in 5th place overall.

In the under 15 boys race Newport’s Elliott Hardee again showed the form that took him to the Welsh Cross Country title recently to finish an excellent 3rd place behind two very impressive English athletes. His 3rd place ensured he remains top of the individual placings going into the final fixture at Camarthen. Elliott’s brother Liam finished 19th and with Curtis Goodger in 21st Newport ensured they remain in 2nd position overall in the team event. In the girls race Newport’s sole representative continued her improvement this year to finish in 22nd place.

In the under 17 boys race Emrys Penney was Newport’s only athlete and again showed significant improvement this year finishing in 8th place which will mean he goes into the final fixture in 5th place overall.

Newport’s best position of the day came in the under 20 men's race where Newport’s Nathan Hardee produced a powerful display of running to win the race by a clear 25 seconds.
 

Senior Men Division 1

Senior women (97 starters) – Saxena is a team of one

Anne Saxena was our only competitor in the senior women’s race. Cheered on by her non-running team-mate Rhian Loudon, Anne finished 28th and was once again first among the M50 athletes. Her run was enough to maintain mid-table respectability in Division 2.

Senior Women Division 2