Derby's Senior Men put in a spirited effort in the Northern 12 Stage @ Wythenshawe, Manchester. Suffering with a few missing runners, including Jonny Gilby and the Bishops, Derby got as high as 4th, but finished 4 mins off the medals. With a good showing on the long legs, Derby will need to work on the depth of the short legs and will be challenging for medals next time around.

On the long legs, Luke Gunn, Alex Pilcher and Rich Weir were 5th, 12th and 13th fastest on the day. A special mention should go to John Knibb who ran a short leg, having been asked to step-in the evening before!

1 Alex Pilcher (5) 22:31 2 Tom Philips (4) 15:58
3 Martin Booth (6) 24:06 4 John Knibb (10) 17:34
5 Richard Weir (5) 22:33 6 Jamie Fletcher (8) 16:51
7 Luke Gunn (6) 22:10 8 Tom Offord (6) 16:24
9 David Westbury (6) 23:28 10 Richard Wilson (6) 16:45
11T Lawrence (6) 25:04 12 J Wildrianne (6) 15:50

Results

Fastest Legs

Telegraph Article

Derbyshire runners were in action at the UK Inter Counties and World Trials at Birmingham's Cofton Park at the weekend. The event, televised on Sky Sports, was switched from it's usual Wollaton Park venue due to the rise in operating costs there. Cofton Park proved a dry and fast undulating course for the countries best runners, vying for world xc places. Ben Connor was the standout for the Derby runners, grabbing an excellent bronze. Ben had been suffering from flu after a recent warm weather trip left most of the runners with food poisioning. In the Under 20 mens, doubling as the world trial, Tom Bishop raised his game from the National to finish 7th, close to qualifying for the World XC. In the Senior Men's race Luke Gunn spearheaded the effort with 10th place. Luke was in the mix and was only 7th secs behind 5th. Overall a fine day's racing for Derbyshire's best runners.

Photos
Results

Telegraph Article

Selected results:

Senior Men

10th Luke Gunn 36:09
128th Dave Westbury 39:51
190th Dav Connor 41:05

Under 13 Boys

66th Jethro McGraw 11:13
131st Hugo Milner 11:33
262nd Taylor Lawrence 12:34

Under 17 Men

Bronze Ben Connor 18:45
61st Josh Bull 20:17
159th Niall Maguire 21:15

Under 20 Men

7th Thomas Bishop 26:03
59th David Bishop 27:53

Under 13 Girls

251st Danielle Booth 13:19

Under 15 Girls

81st Kirsty Shipman 16:53
185th Veleska Wills 17:45

Under 17 Women

146th Emily Allsop 22:02

Interesting UKA publication on food and drink and its importance in sport.

Mansfield AC are holding a Spring Track & Field Open Meeting on Sunday 4th April 2010. For more details and an entry form click here.