Katie leads way as debutants shine

RUNNING: THREE debutants were among 29 Royton Road Runners who braved snowy conditions in the Great North-West Half Marathon in Blackpool.

All three recorded good times, with Katie Cumkin coming home in 2hrs 2mins 12secs and Anne Jones and Joanne Clarke finishing in 2:23:13 and 2:30:33 respectively.

Mark Kelly, running his first half-marathon, completed the two-lap course in an impressive 1:35:27, while the more-experienced Dave Smith knocked a huge 16 minutes off his 2009 time in 1:41:17, just pipping Debbie Shaw in an exciting sprint to the line.

Debbie was the second Royton woman to finish as Carole Madden continued her great start to the season, her time of 1:31:28 being good enough for second place in the FV40 category.

Other prize-winning age-group performances were recorded by Teresa Hollins (2nd FV55 in 1:54:21), June Allingan (2nd FV60 in 2:23:23), Bernie Cassidy (3rd V50 in 1:24:40) and Chris Eavers (3rd V55 in 1:33:54), but it was club championship leader Stuart Carroll who led home the Royton runners, his time of 1:20:32 ensuring a top-20 finish.

Other finishers were David Emanuel (1:25:49), Bernie Goodwin (1:27:41), Colin Green (1:28:38), Bryan Lawton (1:29:08), Rob Kellett (1:31:01), Richard Fiddling (1:32:08), Bruce Whittam (1:33:43), Eamonn Nolan (1:35:57), Lewis Shaw (1:41:47), Martin Kay (1:42:13), Jeff Cordwell (1:47:37), Shane Reading (1:51:48), Val Kilburn (1:52:30), Julie Greenwood, Tony Hunking (both 2:01:31), Helen Knight (2:00:55) and Jenny Newell (2:09:15).


CHRISTOPHER Brown and Adam Howard maintained their domination of under-13 and under-15 events as Oldham and Royton Harriers travelled to Leigh for the final race in the South-East Lancashire Cross-Country League.

Christopher won his fourth race on the trot in the under-13s category in 7:46, while Adam finished first for the fourth time to take the under-15 age group race in 11:27.

Both boys, along with Jane Augsburger in the under-17s section, have been selected for the Greater Manchester Cross-Country team.

In the under-11 boys race, Joseph Kershaw stormed home in second place in 8:02, followed by Alex Taylor (eighth, 8:31).

Leah McDonald, meanwhile, was fourth in the girls’ race in 8:43.

Brown was followed home by Conner Colleavey (fourth, 8:34), Bradley Healy (fifth, 8:47), Nathan Hilditch (11th, 9:42) and James Riley (12th, 12:36).

Lucy Kershaw was third in the under-13s girls’ race in 9:21, followed by Rachel Emmott (fourth, 9:23), Jade Pearlman (fifth, 9:25), Megan Whitworth (seventh, 10:43) and Amy Hall (eighth, 10:58).

Howard was chased home by club-mates Mathew Shaughnessy (third, 12:33), Steven Heanue (fifth, 13:19) and Scott Healey (seventh, 14:02).

Jane Augsburger finished an excellent second in 23:05 in the under-17s race.

Dominic Kennerley led home the Harriers runners in the Blackpool Half-Marathon.

He produced a great run to be 93rd in a personal-best time of 1:29:20.

Pete Williams was 172nd in 1:34:18, Darren Mannings 246th in 1:39:00 and Paul Taylor 637th in 1:58:32.