Despite a number of Heaton Harriers enjoying the warmer weather of Palma and many running the Hadrian’s Wall Half Marathon, we had a great turnout for the second Harrier League fixture of the season at Druridge Bay. Despite a very cold start to the day, the sun was out, there was mud on the course and (most) people were smiling.

Junior races – Heaton had a fantastic turnout of 14 juniors across all races.

U11 Boys – Leo Parkin (19^th), Thomas Smith (36^th on debut) and Flynn Cook (40^th)

U11 Girls – Robyn Jardine (31^st)

U13 Boys – Alex Parkin (23^rd from fast pack – 8^th fastest on the day)

U13 Girls – Emily Daglish (36^th) and Olivia Daglish (53^rd)

U15 Boys – Johan Haniffa (5^th) and will be promoted to fast pack. Finley Smith (12^th), Jake Smith (14^th), Alex Smith (21^st from fast pack – 8^th fastest on the day) and Alex Hill (23^rd) – a strong team performance across with the boys finishing 2^nd team for the second race running which places the team at the top of the Harrier Team U15 Boys league.

U15 Girls – Mary Parkin (11^th from fast pack – 5^th fastest on the day) and Freya McKinnon (40^th).

Women’s race

We had 17 ladies and 2 V65 men taking part in this race which is 2 laps of the course (approx. 4 miles). On her Harrier League debut, first home for the club was Charlotte Redhead who finished in 25^th place overall. Charlotte is now promoted to medium pack for the next fixture after finishing in the top 10% of the field. Our counters for our ladies’ team alongside Charlotte were Nina Cameron (56th), Laura Jardine (71st) and Helena Walsater (91st).

The ladies’ team were 9^th place in Division 1 yesterday. This will place them in joint 7^th place in the Division 1 league table after 2 fixtures.

Men’s race

Thes sun remained out for the men’s race which is 3 laps of the course (6 miles in total).

On his XC debut for Heaton, Chris Larkin was first home for the club in a time of 33.23 and was a very impressive 2nd overall. Chris has been promoted into medium pack for the next fixture. Also on his debut for the club, Alex Bradley finished in 19th position overall and will be joining Chris in medium pack at the next fixture. Mark Hope running from medium pack was next to finish in 29th place overall, which will see Mark promoted to fast pack also.

The men’s team event is made up of 6 counters which also included Oliver Jardine (109th), Lee Daglish (112nd) and Jason Wall (127^th).

The men’s team had a brilliant result yesterday and were 1^st place team in Division 2. This places them in joint 1^st place with Houghton at the top of the Division 2 table after 2 fixtures.