Six Preston Harriers turned out on this brisk clear dry morning with little wind, so conditions for running were good. The race goes from Owd Nells past Myerscough College on the St Michaels road until the turn towards and through Inskip. Beyond Inskip it turns left up Woods Lane and then back onto the St Michaels road and back to Owd Nells.
Rob Affleck, Jason Parker, Kevin Hunt, Chris Wales, Alan Appleby and Sue Wickham were the participating Harriers looking forward to the challenge as the runners lined up for the 10am start. Rob was up at the front from the off in his new Adidas Adizero Adios shoes. They certainly lived up to the name as Rob said adios to the rest of the field, coming home first in 54.11; only a young Joe Monk challenged and he was kept at bay by Rob's experience.

In the final race of the Red Rose Cross Country League at Marl Pitts, Rossendale, Preston Harriers’ Alan Appleby finished the senior men’s race in 145th place and 3rd Vet 65, which along with two earlier first places was enough to secure him the overall win in the series for the Vet 65 category.
The tough course around sports pitches has a series of terraces to climb before going through a deep muddy section of forestry, followed by some tricky descents back for the next lap. First Preston Harrier home was Simon Collins (33rd), followed by John Griffiths (61st) and Phil Lakeland (178th). In the ladies race Sue Wickham was 57th.

Venue: UCLan Track
Date: Wed 14 Dec
Start Time: 7.45pm
Distance: 5k
Entry fee: £2 (Plus normal track fee)
All entry fees used for prizes
Age: Over 16
This is the first in a series of 3 races for Preston H. senior members which take place during the normal Wednesday evening track session. The distance for each race may vary, but this one will be 5k. So come along and record an accurate 5k track time. Better prizes than last year.

November Run of the Month was awarded to Paddy Dever at finishing 14th in 29:48 at the British Athletics Cross Challenge at Liverpool. Also, 2nd Under 23 and 1st place in the Mid Lancs Cross Country League. Finishing only 6 seconds behind the first U23 this earned him automatic selection to the GB Under 23 team for the European Cross Country Championships in Italy.

As Chairman of the Club, on behalf of the Chorley Athletic and Triathlon Club committee and our members who organised the XC race, may I formally thank you as a Club for helping us out with Marshalling. Without your help, we would have struggled putting on the race so your help was absolutely invaluable to us. Many many thanks
Daryl Peter

This year’s race was focused on raising funds for 5-year-old Rory Curzon Smith who was born at 24 weeks with Hypertonia, a muscle weakness condition. He was there to greet all the keen athletes last Sunday morning at Moor Park, to set them on their way. Preston Harriers’ domination of the race was established right at the start with Jason Parker steaming ahead to attain the lead which was never threatened for him to cross the line in a cracking 16.40. The Harrier contingent was then tightly packed with positions changing over the last km. Alex Waddelove was pursued by Neil Mc Donald, Jack Keighley and Lee Foley resulting in Alex 4^th (18.36), Neil 5^th overall, 1^st MV45 (18.38), Jack 6th (18.41) and Lee 7^th (18.43). The mighty Billy Johnstone maintained the Harrier presence to attain 1^st MV50 in 19.11 and was pushed all the way by Stephen Needham with 19.56, 1^st FV40 Victoria Duckett (21.40) and 1stFV45 Loy Kalasiram (22.17). It was also great to see the return of a Preston Harrier ambassador Graham Bailey, 2^nd V60 in a respectable 22.54. Harrier prizes continued with Felicity Cross storming the line in 26.57 as 1^st FV60 to complete the Proud Preston Harrier Team who are looking forward to the 2017 summer race for Rory Curzon Smith, organised by Steve Ashcroft and his superb marshalling team.

Preston Harriers Sportshall team totally dominated the first Lancashire Sportshall League fixture, convincingly beating their fellow Lancashire athletics clubs. Harriers scored 433 points while their closest rival Chorley managed 137.5 points. Winning all the 6 team age group competitions and collecting 5 of the 6 individual 'Athlete of the Match' age group awards, Harriers look set to retain their Lancashire title for the 9^th consecutive season.

The stand-out performance for Preston Harriers came from Patrick Dever in the senior men’s race at the Liverpool XC. The race included the second counter in the British Athletics Cross Challenge series, as well as the Mid Lancs League and it was also the trial race for the GB team at the European Cross Country Championships.

Dever is the reigning Northern Athletics under 20 cross country champion and in the previews of the races, he wasn`t named, which was a surprise. He finished a wonderful 14^th overall and 2^nd under 23 over the 9.8k course at Sefton Park, in what was a quality field. Dever gained automatic selection for GB under 23s for the Europeans at Chia in Italy on the 11^th December. The senior men’s race was won in fine style by Andy Butchart, who was 6^th in the 10,000m at the Rio Olympics in the summer.

Dever inevitably led home the Mid Lancs runners, and by almost a minute and the team counters for 5^th overall included Daniel Bebington, Richard Smith, Gethin Butler, Andy Grimshaw and Alan Durney.

Read more...