Matthew Evans 1/3/2013

Cross Country

This weekend saw various running events taking place across the country with a number of cross country members representing the University of Leeds.

A handful made the journey up to the last big event of the season – the English National Cross Country Championships in Sunderland. There were some good performances in the Junior race with Beau Smith coming home in 59th place closely followed by Phil Sesemann in 61st. Not much further down the field and within a minute was Finn Brodie in 74th place. Despite an injury-blighted season, Alex Bellew made it over the start and finish line of the Senior race coming home in 153rd place out of over one thousand runners.

Over in Blackpool the Great North West Half Marathon was taking place. The event was won by Matthew John, a local who often trains with our Uni boys, in an impressive time of 1:08:52. Club member Shan used this event as a building block towards his main aim of completing a marathon later this year. Despite having a tight leg for the majority of the run it eased off allowing him to finish in 1:20:03. He was rather pleased as this time meant he had a new PB (this being his half marathon debut). Qianyi Zann Ng did a good job of representing the ladies and finished in 1:44:23 another new PB for the day.

Meanwhile in Sheffield, Jocelyn Payne crossed the floor to represent athletics in the 3000m race at the Indoor BUCS competition. Joss completed the first round in a new PB of 10:18, which qualified her as the fastest loser for the final on Sunday. She then smashed her PB again shaving another eleven seconds off and finishing 7th overall.

Back in Leeds, those that could manage to get out of bed after a Fruity Friday turned up to the local Parkrun on Woodhouse Moor with James Reynolds and Bethan Palmer setting PBs. Sarah Marsden took it steady on her return from injury, but is looking forward to putting in the miles ready for her own marathon attempt.