Rochdale Harriers & AC Juniors

NORTHERN VETS XC

IN LAST weekend’s Northern Veterans Cross Country championship at Moss Bank Park, Bolton, Brenda and Kristian Robinson (pictured) were the only mother and son athletes to be placed in their respective age categories. The course was relatively good under foot and stretched to 5K for the ladies and 10K for the men. Both Robinsons had excellent races and both achieved 2^ndplace, Brenda in the female over 60’s (27 min 27 sec) and Kristian in the male over 35’s (40 min 02 sec). Even their trophies they brought home were identical.

STAINTHORPE ON FORM AT RADCLIFFE

TEN MEMBERS of Rochdale Harriers competed in last weekend’s Radcliffe 12 Mile trail race. Wajib Ali continued his fine form by finishing in 5^th place overall in an impressive 73 minutes 17 seconds.

The rise in form of Rochdale’s Ian Stainthorpe was arguably the talking point of the day. An early warning of this surfaced at training on the previous Tuesday evening. The athletes were performing a standard ‘mile strides’ speedwork session involving repeated 1 mile sprints with 2 minute recoveries. During this session, Stainthorpe was posting times as fast as five and a half minutes per mile. Then, when it came to the Radcliffe 12 miler, Stainthorpe showed his mettle by finishing in 15^th place overall in a fantastic time of 79 min 15 sec. Ian looks well on course to achieve his London Marathon target of a sub 2:45 run.

Rochdale’s first lady finisher was Anna Blomfield, another 2007 London Marathon competitor. She finished the race comfortably in 95 min 58 sec and took second place in the female veteran 45 category.

The results for members of Rochdale Harriers were as follows: 5^th Wajib Ali , 1:13:17; 15^th Ian Stainthorpe, 1:19:15; 25^th David Bentley, 1:21:52; 44^th Paul Leary, 1:26:46; 81^st Anna Blomfield (2^nd F45), 1:35:58: 94^th Andy O'Sullivan, 1:38:51; 97^th John Purdy, 1:39:12; 98^th Clive Conway, 1:39:13; 138^th Julie Sandilands, 1:48:07; 139^th Nicky Carey 1:48:07.