Shildon RAC members Kate Avery and Cameron Boyek continued their indoor season in high calibre races this February. Kate represented her American College in the Colombia Invitational meet and ran a fine race to finish 2nd over a mile in a new pb of 4m 38.24s. Cameron finished 4th in his heat at the British indoor Championships at Sheffield, in spite of a recent ankle injury that hampered his training in the build up to the race. Meanwhile, Cameron Stainsby represented Durham Schools in the Northern Schools inter-county XC where he finished 17th in the junior boys race. Other distance runners in action during the start of February included Chloe Fairclough and Harrison Dalglish, who both enjoyed success in the Stockton trail race series. Both runners completed the 2k race as 2nd finishers in their age categories.
Members were also in action at Richmond for the NYSD XC fixture. Shildon sent out a healthy number of its female members to contest the senior ladies race. This has been the first season for many years that Shildon have fielded a senior ladies team in the NYSD Cross-Country League and 11 Shildon ladies turned out for the last race of the season, finishing in 4th team position on the day.
A strong cold wind made the going very difficult and many athletes struggled to find their pace as they battled into the headwind up the long incline to the old grandstand. Amy Etherington and Elizabeth Wood were Shildon’s first counters home, while Shannon Ross and Lynne Foster battled for position with Shannon winning 3rd team counter position with a last-minute sprint to the finish just in front of Lynne (4th counter).
The other Shildon women to finish were Hazel Johnson (45th), Helen Race (47th), Pat Edwards (50th), Julie Cane (53rd), Nicola Dent (57th) and Irene Ross (61st).
In the Men’s race Ian Rudge was the sole representative for Shildon. Despite the difficult conditions, Ian enjoyed the race and is showing bags of potential for next season.
Over in the U11s Millie Foster ran well to finish 10th girl in 11m 42s. While in the boys Thomas Wraith finished 12th in 10m 13s with brother Joshua close behind in 14th (10m 18s).
Many more of the U11 group took to action in the 3rd Monkton Minors indoor meet.
Harry Cullen was 1st in heat 4 of the U9 boys 60m (10.7s). Harry went on to finish 4th in the 60m final (10.5s) and 3rd in his 300m heat (1m 6.03s). U10g Kayleigh Readman recorded 9.7s to win her 60m heat and 9.6s in the final to take home the silver medal. Kayleigh completed a busy day in the 450m, by finishing 3rd in her heat (1m 54s). Over in the U11bs Leighton Oliver Ince recorded a time of 11.6s and Adam Hanby ran 10.3s in the 60m sprint.
Leighton went onto run a 3s pb in the 600m (2m 50s), while Adam finished in 2m 33s. The U11g’s events saw Chloe Fairclough earn a bronze medal over 600m (2m 24.1s) and finish 3rd in heat 2 of the 60m (10s). While fast improving Amy Leigh Hutchinson ran a pb of 9.7s to finish 2nd in her heat. Last, but by no means least, Izzy Cullen recorded a time of 11s in her 60m race.
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