Farmer milks the applause !!
With the Club competing in both divisions of the Derby Runner Cross Country League it has been a long, drawn out campaign for cross country regulars. Sunday’s race, over a challenging, technical course at Grace Dieu, was in the more competitive Leicestershire Division and again it was the in-form James Farmer who led the Club’s contingent home with a superb 12th place finish. Next back was Rob Eaton, who despite a great deal of heavy mileage training in his legs, ran well for 22nd place with Tom Bradley, making his racing debut as a second claim runner for the Club, next to cross the line in 23rd. In what was arguably the performance of the day Mark Harriott battled round, after a fall, to finish in an excellent 43rd place. Shane Chapman showed his class by finishing in 59th before Christian Glover and Nathan Fagan had their own inter-club battle as they finished in 67th and 69th places respectively. Andy Orme and Matt Long gave their usual maximum effort to complete the men’s team finishers in 116th and 127th places while Tom Eyre showed a great deal of determination to battle round in 212th with Robin Thorne in 252nd completing the Club’s finishers in the men’s race.
The Club’s women’s team resources were significantly stretched with the four finishers making up the scoring team. Nikki Reeves led the way home in 42nd with Emily Atkins and Rebecca Lenaghan close together in 120th and 122nd. Becky Atkins showed a great deal of grit and determination as she, despite injury, completed the finishing team in 139th.
Eight of the Club’s runners took to the roads as they tackled the challenging Rugeley 10 miler. Showing good form and clearly benefitting from his marathon training Paul Glover led the contingent home in 78:19 with Lisa Wright also performing superbly to stop the clock in 79:52. Tracey Glover in 81:00 was next on chip time just edging out Chris Elsegood in 81:04. Becky Moult was not far behind in 82:15 with Karen Wilks, Ellie Dickson and Carolyn Ife giving everything to finish in 92:31, 96:35 and 114:49 respectively.
Rich Miller and Steve Leafe were in action in the Leicestershire Half Marathon on a flat course at the popular racing venue of Prestwold Hall. Both performed excellently with Rich recording a chip time of 84:15 and Steve 94:31.
