Harriers Bronzed

Greater Manchester Cross Country Championship 2014

Saturday 4th January 2014

Leigh Sport Village

The Harriers Senior Men had one of their strongest showings for years at this years GMXC Champs. A squad of nine turned up with expectations high that we could get in the medals, aided by an equally strong group of supporters spread around the course shouting encouragement.

The course was fast and flat with a good mixture of hard packed trails, mud baths and good running, and even though the ground was fairly saturated from the recent rains, the weather stayed fair and not too cold.

A top quality field made for a competitive race and Andi Jones came home first for Stockport AC. First home for Horwich was the ever improving Chris Farrell in 9th position. Chris will be hoping this will be enough to get him a Greater Manchester vest for the upcoming inter-counties. The rest of the Horwich team delivered what was hoped for. Joe Mercer in 15th, Martyn Bell in 24th and Dave Milliken in 28th made up the team of four that claimed the bronze medal behind Salford and Sale, but ahead of quality teams from Leigh, East Cheshire and Altrincham, to name a few. The medal winners were well supported by runs from Alastair Murray, Dave ‘wrong shoes’ Jackson, Pete Ramsdale, Gordon Stone, John Parker and Tony Hesketh.

In the under 13s race, showing that the future is bright for the club, Lewis Wilkes, Jake Glenndening and Kieron Kinealy ran well for a team position of 9th.

This was a great start to the year and hopefully bodes well for the rest of the cross country program, with squads attending both the Northern and National cross country in the coming weeks.

AM.