Wakefield Harriers ladies finish third in final West Yorkshire Cross Country League race

There was a good Wakefield turnout from the senior ladies, however, and in a close battle the team finished third.

They were led home once again by Charlotte Knowles, who finished an excellent fifth and she was well supported by Helen Beck in 15th, Angela Dales 36th and Natalie-Jade Harris in 45th.

The senior men were not at full strength, but Ben Butler had a fine run to finish fifth and with Andrew Cartwright 20th, Elliot Prentice 31st, Philip Ambler 63rd, David Brooke 85th and Ian Shipley 87th the Harriers line-up finished sixth in the team standings.

In the U15 girls race the scoring trio of Rosie Thistlewood (fifth), Evie Tunney (ninth) and Jessica Watson (22nd) finished fourth in their team event.

The Junior Jets were out in force, which was great to see, with 16 young runners from the club.

The best turnout from the club was in the U11 boys race, where Wakefield had 11 runners competing.

The scoring trio of Sydney Swan (ninth), Lochlan Ruddock (11th) and Ethan Ford (16th) did well to finish as second team.

The 'B' team of Harry Beck (17th), Oliver Smith (18th) and Tommy Rudd (25th) would have been the fourth team to finish.

The U11 girls team were sixth, their scorers being Eirian Clark (20th), Maisie Sayles (28th) and Jessica Gilbert (30th).

In the other age groups where the Harriers had incomplete teams, running well individually and competing well for the club were Paige Watson (10th U17 ladies), Millie Powell (13th U17 ladies) and Luke Cartwright (19th U15 boys).

Samuel Bona finished an excellent third in the U13 boys and Thomas Hastings was 20th in the same race.

Euan Gaskin leads Wakefield Harriers' efforts in West Yorkshire Cross Country League race

At the Telford 10k, recognised as one of the fastest courses around, and which this year incorporated the England 10k Championships, there were some very fast times recorded from the Harriers runners taking part.

Mark Bostock became the only the fourth Wakefield Harrier to break the 30-minute barrier and he moved up to second place in the club all-time list, with the scintillating time of 29 minutes: 45 seconds.

Only Darren Spawforth, with his club record of 29:15 from 1992, has run faster.

Daniel Franks also ran an excellent PB of 31:19, which moved him up to ninth place in the club all-time list and M45 Stewart Knowles improved his best too with a time of 34:03.

The Harriers were pleased to be represented on the international stage last weekend with Amy-Eloise Markovc selected to compete for Great Britain in the European Cross Country Championships in Italy.

The 8km course was tough, with lots of sharp climbs and descents, and with some muddy and slippery sections and so was not really suited to Amy-Eloise’s style of running, but she still did well to finish in 26th in a strong field and was sixth counter for the strong GB team, who finished in second place behind Germany.