We are pleased to report that Heaton Juniors had a successful North of England Cross Country Championships at Blackburn on Saturday. We have some fantastic results and news to report.
Mary Parkin was the first to race in the U15 Girls and achieved an impressive 31st place in a time of 18mins 46 seconds. Mary was the 4th North East finisher in strong company. This was a qualifying race for the North Eastern Counties team for the National Finals in Loughborough on 11 March however Mary had already secured her place in the team automatically by finishing 3rd in the North Eastern Championships in December.
The Under 13 boys team members also all had successful races. Alex Smith was an amazing 21st place from a field of 112 finishers in a time of 12:31. Alex was 4th North East finisher and has also been chosen for the North Eastern Counties team for the Nationals. For those not aware, Alex had also won the U13 Boys Sherman Cup race at the start of the month and won an inter-schools race last Thursday.
Next across the line was Joseph Brown in an impressive 36th place and 6th placed North East runner in a time of 13:00 – Joseph has also been chosen for the North Eastern Team for the Nationals.
Alex Parkin completed the team finishing 59th in 13:29 – not too far behold the others at all. Alex has a further year in this age group and will be a contender next year.
We therefore have three members of Heaton Harriers chosen to represent the North East in the National Inter-counties at Loughborough in a single season. Given that there are only 8 runners per age category team this is a tremendous achievement for which they and the club can be extremely proud.
Alex, Joseph and Mary along with Rosie Swatman will also be running for Northumberland Schools in the Northern Inter-counties Schools Championships after all four qualified in their respective County Championship races two weeks ago.