Gwent League

Newport Harriers Gwent League

Gwent League Cross-Country
United Counties Showground, Carmarthen 14th March 2009

Senior Men (172 starters) – Newport soar up the table on the final day

 Newport fielded their strongest team of the season in the final race of the 2008-09 Gwent League, which paid handsome dividends as they leapt two places ahead of UWIC and the mighty Neath.

There was mayhem at the start of the race when the Newport runners were subjected to a sudden paparazzi attack as they were on their marks. The hapless photographer – Ian Morgan – just managed to escape in time to avoid being trampled underfoot by the 170-strong field.

Under-20 member Nathan Hardee made his debut over the senior distance to record the club’s highest individual placing of the season in 4th position, followed by Gareth Fereday who achieved his highest ever finish in 20th place. Our top two Vets on the day were the fast and reliable Dave Griffiths (55th) and Steve Wadley (66th) who put in a storming run over the heavy-going course. Darryn McAtee (79th), Stuart Pearce (81st) and Malcolm Medhurst (93rd) ran the first two laps together before Darryn broke up the group with an injection of strong running. Dave Proffitt completed the team in 149th position.

Newport improved by one place on last season, finishing 8th in Division 1. On the overall individual table Dave Goodger was 37th, ever-present Darryn McAtee was 73rd, Dave Griffiths was 84th and Neil Hardee was 93rd. Our main strength lay in our perseverance – as the other teams tailed off their efforts we ensured we had our strongest teams out for the last two races.

After the race Assistant Team Manager Colin Bradley said, “Well done the boys. Superb effort by everyone. I’ll be getting that James Nasrat to run cross-country for us next season so we’ll do even better”.
 

Senior Men Division 1

Senior women (84 starters) – Saxena badly in need of company

Once again Anne Saxena was our only competitor in the senior women’s race but this was enough to maintain 6th place in Division 2. Anne finished in 27th position, which placed her 15th on the overall table. On the Masters 45+ table she was 2nd overall behind TROTS athlete Caroline Jones.

Senior Women Division 2