Derby were well represented at last weekends notoriously fast Alsager 5 mile road race. Derby finished 4th in the Senior team race, with Alex Pilcher finishing 13th, Tom Phillips in 39th and John Knibb in 67th (12th Vet). The field was stacked with season internationals filling the top 6 or 7 places. Special mention should go to Tom Phillips, more accustomed to 800m and racing way beyond his normal distance in training for the 12 stage road relays.
Alex Pilcher (13th) - 24:20
Tom Phillips (39th) - 26:37
John Knibb (67th) - 28:36
Russell Parkin (107th) - 29:56 Ray Macdonald (169th) - 31:57 Karl Petch (409th) - 37:15 Paula Parkin (486th) - 39:03
Alex Pilcher and Ben Connor sealed victories in the rescheduled Derbyshire XC Championships @ Markeaton Park. With Notts holding their event a week earlier, the fields lacked the usual depth. In the Senior Men's race Alex Pilcher pushed the pace along with Veteran Andy Ward. Pilcher was able to steal a march on the last lap and hung on for his first county title, perhaps tainted by Jonny Gilby (6 time champion) missing from the race. In the Under 17 race Ben Connor was a comfortable winner, leading Derby to a clean sweep of the medals; Joshua Bull and Niall Maguire brought the team home. In the Under 15 girls race Veleska Wills edged the title by 1 sec over clubmate and rival Kirsty Shipman.
Two Derby AC athletes came away from the recent Welsh indoor championships with a medal each.
In a quality field of 16, Welsh international Dave Westbury won the gold in the senior men's 3000m in a championship best time of 8'17.84", beating the 40 year old previous record by nearly a second. The first 11 athletes all ran under 8'30"
Chris Hill won a bronze in the senior men's 60m in 6.97s, having won both his heat in 7.04s and semi final in a pb 6.95s.
Highlights from the Senior Men's race at a foggy Witton Park:
Northern Indoor Success
Sunday, 24 January 2010 18:57
Whilst the XC runners were suffering with cancelled events due to the snowy conditions, Derby's indoor protagonists did well on the boards against the best the North had to offer. Yasmin Miller was the star of the weekend, with two golds (u17 60m hurdles and 60m flat) and a silver in the 200m. In the Senior 1500m, there were medals on both sides with Dave Westbury and Ellie Stevens both collecting silver.
(Above: Jordan Wildrianne and Tom Phillips take 4th and 5th in Senior Men's 1500m)
Connor Grabs Northern Silver
Sunday, 24 January 2010 17:46
Ben Connor won Silver in the U17 Northern XC Championships held @ the familiar Witton Park in Blackburn. Ben was 2 secs off Gold and was backed up as ever by Niall Maguire (13), Josh Bull (15) and M Hayes (98), helping the team to 4th. In the Senior Mens race Jonny Gilby, fresh off a holiday in New Zealand performed well to finish 13th, with Alex Pilcher backing him up in 21st. Dav Connor in 113,Tom Offord (123), Ian Stevens (153) and Stuart Dunn (271) completed the team scoring for a respectable 12th place finish. The Senior Men had 8 hills to negotiate and given the tough course all those that finished can pat themselves on the back! In the Under 20 race Tom Lawrence was the sole finisher for Derby in 32nd place, D Haymes was 31st in the Under 13 boys, Victoria Wills hit the top 30 with a 27th place in the Under 15 girls and D Booth was 60th in the U13 girls race.
All runners faced a challenging XC course with two tough hills, named 'saucer' and 'teaspoon'. The teaspoon had a steep, challenging downhill section with mole holes and the like to negotiate, due to the course being a country park - true XC! Add to that the fog (see pic below) and it made for a great days racing.
