There was a good turnout of Harriers at the Farringdon open races on Saturday 13th September. The event is seen as the the opener to the cross country season which gets underway properly at Cramlington next month. The first event was the U11 race and success for the club straight away with Emily Salmon finishing 3rd in the girls race covering the 1000m course in 4.15. In the u13 race Lucy Walker finished a good 14th in 12:51 despite having been misinformed of of the distance! Elyssen Findlay finished 33rd in her first race I believe for the club! In the boys Izaak Taylor also ran his first cross country finishing in an excellent 4th place. Well done to the U13’s!
In the u15 events we only had a boys team with some season campaigners in the field. Cameron Allen finished in 8th with Jacob Stevenson in 11th, William Morgan-Rippon 12th and Luke Pickering 17th. At a glance if there were a team result the boys would probably have finished 2nd to Morpeth. The performances and close packing of runners looks good for the Harrier league this season. The U17 category had a lone Durham runner in Alice Campbell who ran a good race finishing 7th in 12.29.
In the senior races Durham mens ‘A’ team finished a creditable 8th overall. Alex Mirley made a welcome return to the Durham squad after an absence of a few years. Leading off on the first leg of the 4 stage relay he came home 7th in 9.19. Adam Walker too the 2nd leg and ran a strong race in 10.21 but dropping to 14th overall. Graeme Hunt took 3rd leg marking his return to the country after some time running an excellent 10.14 bring the team up to 13th. Andy Graham took the anchor leg an ran a swift leg pulling the team to 8th place in 9.29. The ‘B’ team was incomplete with 3 runners. Rob Whittle took first leg with a time of 12.31 followed by Niall Salmon (12.57) in his first cross country for the club. Geoff Watson was 3rd leg (12.55)
In the senior women’s race Both Amy Etherington and Kim Simpson showed good form to take the 1.8 mile course in their stride. Amy finished an excellent 3rd (10.51) with Kim Just behind in 5th (1.21). The race was won by Lydia Tunrer of Birtley AC in 9.27
Full results and pictures are on the start fitness website