England joy for Howard

ATHLETICS: ADAM Howard spearheaded the England team to an excellent win in the Schools’ International at Truro, Cornwall.

The 14-year-old Oldham and Royton Harrier, who was crowned the English Schools Cross-Country junior champion a week earlier, was always close to the pace.

But he had to settle for second place in the end, five seconds behind the winner, in 13 minutes three seconds.

Next up for Howard and team-mate Christopher Brown, is a trip to London, where they will represent the north-west in the Mini-Marathon on April 25.

The race takes place on the same day as the London Marathon and covers the last three miles of famous course, finishing on the Mall and in the shadow of Buckingham Palace.

Also running on the day will be the club’s senior runners, David Elliott, Paul Taylor, Dominic Kennerley, Darren Manning, Jason Horsfield and Pete Williams, who are all hoping to set good times in the full marathon.

In the recent Vera Hirst 5k road race in Little-borough, Mike Manning was third in 16:17, followed by Owen Flage (31st in 18:41) and Kennerley (61st in 20:03).

Darren Manning had a good run in 79th (21:04), with Pete Williams 88th in (21:44), Derek Atherton 98th (22:27), Andrea Baker 116th (23:43) and Helen Atherton 143rd (26:47).

Kennerley put the finishing touches to his London Marathon training by posting a new personal best of 1:29:23 in the Wilmslow Half Marathon.

Sara Bott came home strongly to post 1:54:20, in front of Alistair Mallen (1:54:38) and David Elliott (1:55:46).