Swamp Road Cross Country

The Heywood sisters, Aleesha and Shayna, provided the family with double reason for celebration on Saturday. Shayna provided the first reason by winning the under 14/16 girls race at the Napier Harrier Club's Swamp Road Cross Country races, while Aleesha equalled the success of her sister by taking out the under 12 race. Both sisters started their races form 'GO' and took full advantage of their handicaps with Shayna coming home 58 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, while Aleesha was forced to work a little harder, taking her race by just 22 seconds. Second home in the under 14/16 event was Sonya Clark who also returned the fastest time over the 2.6km course. The under 12?s race was a combined boys and girls event. Hogan Green was second home and also ran the fastest time for the 1.8km course, while Eric Speakman was second fastest and third across the line. The results have closed the gap at the top of the series. With one race remaining Green is now tied at the top of the series with Brendan Speakman (who placed fourth on Saturday), while Heywood is just one point adrift in third. The under 14/16 boys event was taken out by Hayden Schofer. Schofer ran a superb race to take the win by 26 seconds from Aaron Corney with Stefan Smith just 1 second further back. Schofer also took home the HB Cinemas 'Runner of the Day' award. Adele Marsh, co-owner of the property on which the event was held, put to use her good local knowledge to win the Senior/Vet women's event by just 3 seconds from Cheryl Simpson. Jo Cavanagh ran fastest time of the day for the grade to take out third. The Senior/Vets men event was more notable for the poor handicapping than for the caliber of the running. That is not to take anything from the efforts of eventual winner Chris Corney, but unfortunately the race had obviously handicap for a 3 lap race and not the four which were raced. Unfortunately this was not realised until after the race had started so nothing could be done to rectify the situation. Corney, running from scratch, ran fastest time of the day with Mark Speakman running second fastest time for second across the line. Maurice Lloyd was third across the line while John Hambleton produced the third fastest time of the day. From a personal view point I though it was quite humerous how the Men's event turned. Chris and I had been talkin on the way out to the run about how the top ranked runner should never win a handicap race and the unlikelyhood (if there is such a word) of it happening. Then he turns around and wins it! Nevermind, I needed the points.

Athlete	Grade	Clock Time	H'cap	Actual Time	H'cap Points	Fastest Times
Senior/Vet Men - 10.4km
Chris Corney	SM	53:56	16:40	37:16	30	1
Mark Speakman	SM	54:05	15:30	38:35	29	2
Maurice Lloyd	VM	54:41	12:45	41:56	28	5
Wayne Smith	VM	55:11	11:20	43:51	27	8
John Hambleton	VM	55:31	15:30	40:01	26	3
Eric Phimister	VM	55:43	12:15	43:28	25	6
Mark Todd	SM	55:56	11:00	44:56	24	9
John Craven	VM	56:11	12:30	43:41	23	7
Craig Mathers	SM	56:43	16:20	40:23	22	4
Leo Visser	VM	56:43	02:00	54:43	21	15
Dale Smidt	SM	58:03	08:40	49:23	20	11
Peter Simpson	VM	58:33	09:40	48:53	19	10
Gary de Ridder	VM	59:08	04:00	55:08	18	16
Bob Lewis	VM	59:25	04:00	55:25	17	17
Graham Edmundson	VM	1:02:33	12:45	49:48	14	12
Wayne Forman	VM	1:02:33	11:00	51:33	16	13
Paul Dally	VM	1:02:33	09:20	53:13	15	14
Stuart McKie	VM	DNF
Gib Marsh	VM	DNF
Under 14/16 Girls - 2.6km
Shayna Heywood	U14	14:19	00:00	14:19	15	2
Sonya Clark	U16	15:17	04:00	11:17	14	1
Laura Smidt	U14	Ran off course			5
Under 12 Boys and Girls - 1.8km
Aleesha Heywood	U12	10:11	00:00	10:11	15	4
Hogan Green	U12	10:33	03:35	06:58	14	1
Eric Speakman	U12	10:40	03:20	07:20	13	2
Brendan Speakman	U12	10:45	02:15	08:30	12	3
Under 14/16 Boys - 3.6km
Hayden Schofer	U14	15:54	00:20	15:34	15	3
Aaron Corney	U14	16:20	00:00	16:20	14	5
Stefan Smith	U14	16:21	03:25	12:56	13	1
Ian Clark	U14	16:24	00:45	15:39	12	4
Andrew Prosser	U14	16:25	02:30	13:55	11	2
Under 18/20 and Senior/Vet Women - 5.2km
Adele Marsh	VW	28:38	01:00	27:38	20	3
Cheryl Simpson	VW	28:41	01:00	27:41	19	4
Jo Cavanagh	VW	29:23	05:30	23:53	18	1
Marion Sherbourne	VW	30:03	02:00	28:03	17	5
Trish Foster	VW	30:23	03:30	26:53	16	2
Catherine Corney	VW	30:48	00:00	30:48	15	6
Heidi Edmundson	U20	34:02	00:30	33:32	15	7