Derby Runner Cross-Country League - Grace Dieu

Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 February 2010 10:20 Written by Kevin Sanders Tuesday, 02 February 2010 10:13

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Race Reports

Ivanhoe Runners had a very successful fourth round of the Derby Runner cross-country league, hosted by Shepshed RC. It was a cold but clear day at Grace Dieu, which meant that the ground was very hard underfoot but led to faster times than last year. The 5 mile, one lap course was a mixed terrain of woodland with some short steep hills, some longer downhill's, grassland and a couple of stream crossings. With the Derby Runner league growing in popularity every year, with much increased numbers, the men went off 10 minutes before the women on this course to decrease delays in the field. There was an excellent turnout for many clubs, with Ivanhoe being no exception. This was the clubs strongest performance to date this year, with 28 runners competing for the club.

Despite Brian Stout having run to the race to maintain his distance training, this merely meant he was nicely warmed up as he again came home first for Ivanhoe in 28th place overall in a time of 35:29, with an improving Ivor Davies close on his heels in 35th in 35:42. Stuart Douglas made a welcome return to come 45th overall in 36:21, with Alistair Chambers only 2 seconds behind in 50th place. Steve Baggott was 64th in 37:16, Chris Ramsell 72nd in 37:40 and Martin Yeomans 98th in 39:16. Bart Reid was the final team counter for the men coming 133rd overall in 41:23, with Paul Harris having a good run to finish 140th in 41:36. Ivan Arkinstall was 151st in 42:01, with

 Dave Mann 158th in 42:28, Tim Sturla 167th in 43:12, and Dave Allery making a welcome return in 177th in 43:47. Alan Edwards made 191st place in 44:34, with Keith Baron 200th in 46:00, Andrew Pawley 201st in 46:04, and Kevin Sanders who never really got going, 217th in 47:58. These excellent performances gained the Ivanhoe men 7th team place out of 18 men's teams. Hinckley came 1st. This was a better team performance than the last race and leaves the men 5th in League Two.

The women's team performed really well, again with a good depth of runners and boosted by Naomi Eaton's return to racing for the club. Laura Johnson (running for Ivanhoe but 2nd claim so unable not counting in the team scores) had an excellent run to come 2nd overall in 37:31, with Naomi Eaton close behind and running really strongly at the end in 4th place in a time of 37:43. Rosie Dear and Carolyn Osborne came in in 26th and 27th in times of 44:23 and 44:28 respectively, with Amanda Bradbury coming in 42nd in 47:11, and Teresa Talbot running strongly to gain 47th in 48:15.

Trish McPherson came 51st in 49:11, and Zoe Allery made a very respectable return to racing after a long break to come 57th in 50:32. Alison Allford came 64th in 51:40, and Heather Swan, in her first experience of cross country racing, ran strongly in 53:44 to place 70th, with Ali Sturla sealing the Ivanhoe performance in 59:33, which gained her 89th place. These results meant that Ivanhoe women took 4th place out of 15 women's teams, with Hatton Darts gaining top spot. This was a fantastic performance by the women and consolidated their fine 5th position in League One after three races.

Due to everyone's performance on the day, Ivanhoe had something of a revival to come 5th out of 16 full combined teams. As usual, there was great team spirit and all is set for another grand day out at Bosworth on Sunday 14th February for the next round.

 

 
 

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