Gwent League

Newport Harriers Gwent Cross Country League

Gwent Cross Country League 2007-2008

Brecon Leisure Centre, 9 February 2008

Senior Men - Wadley returns to boost Division 1 survival hopes

Bright sunshine, gently rolling terrain and soft going made the fourth Gwent League meeting a near-perfect cross-country outing. The problem for Newport’s senior men all season has been lack of numbers - apart from the first race in October we have failed to produce five scoring runners. So it was great news to have Steve Wadley (127th) back in the team at the eleventh hour to score valuable points and alleviate our relegation jitters. Ahead of Steve, Darryn McAtee picked off a number of runners on lap 3 to record a rare top 100 finish in 91st place. At the quality end Chris Oxley was an excellent 51st while Neil Hardee crashed into the top ten in 8th place. With one race remaining Newport have three athletes on the overall leader board – Neil (7th), Chris (20th) and Darryn (93rd).

As predicted on the last cross-country report, Pontypridd and Westbury leaped above Newport to leave us one place above the relegation zone with one race to go. However, we have consistently outscored Great Western, and even if Bristol had five athletes in the top ten (and they have the potential to do this) we have a sufficient cushion of points withstand this onslaught provided our usual team turns up at Blaise Castle in March. So my prediction is Division 1 survival this time around.

Senior Men Division 1

Senior women – team bus breaks down

The team bus must have broken down en route as there were no Newport runners in the senior women’s race. Either that or women’s cross-country in our club has declined to an alarmingly parlous state with an absolute dearth of commitment to distance running. Only a miracle can save us now. Nuff said. 

Senior Women Division 2