Last updated at 14:45, Wednesday, 15 February 2012

BARROW And Furness Striders senior men’s cross-country team tightened their grip on the Mid-Lancs League Division One title with a home victory over close rivals Southport in the penultimate fixture of the season.

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The Barrow team have won three of the five fixtures so far and only need to finish a place behind Southport in the last race to secure the title for the first time since 1994.

Striders’ victory on the Academy North Site playing fields on Saturday came despite the fact they were missing starman Peter Huck, who finished a staggering seventh in the Lotto Cross Cup in Hulshout, Belgium, the following day.

Huck, who was representing the North of England, beat reigning European cross-country Champion Atelaw Bekele and two England runners and now looks sure to pick up an England vest in next month’s Home Nations Championships in Glasgow.

The Mid-Lancs event took place in sub-zero temperatures and saw a fall in anticipated numbers in each race due to the conditions.

It was Iain Quinn who once again led the Barrow Senior Men’s A-team home with a battling performance over the testing and sticky four-lap, 9km course, finishing in ninth place.

Club captain Phil Waite came in just behind Quinn in 11th place.

The next three Barrow finishers crossed the line one second after one another, with Bob Atkinson finishing strongly in 15th spot and first Male Vet 50, in a time of 32:03.

James Baird, in his first race for Barrow, was 16th (32:04) and Todd Oates had another strong run in 17th place (32:05).

Jon Benson finished 24th overall and also fourth Junior Man, with team-mate and club coach Pat Miller completing the first team positions in 27th place.

The Barrow senior men also posted a winning B-team and they now have a real chance of promotion up to Division Three if they register another strong result on Saturday, March 3 at Worden Park, Leyland.

Barrow were not finished there as they had a winning Vet 40 team and second-placed Vet 50 team. Other senior men’s results: Jed Bartlett 28th, Garry Dixon 39th, Ray Jones 50th and 4th V50, Simon Stanway 54th, Gary Mason 91st, David Parker 94th, Peter Savage 106th, Roger Quayle 109th.

Striders had a complete women’s team who finished fifth on the day and third in Division Three and have a chance of promotion if they beat Red Rose Road Running Club at the last race in Leyland.

With no margin for error, Striders women had only the minimum three runners needed for a complete team and performed very well in a competitive race. Loughborough University student Christina Wiejak led home the Striders women in an impressive seventh position in her first senior Mid-Lancs cross-country race and second Junior Woman.

Christina, normally a 400m or 800m track runner and cyclist, shown she has more strings to her bow by starting strongly and racing well to cement her top-10 finish on the muddy 5km course.

The ever-presents in the senior women’s team, Jill Seddon and Helen Walker, enjoyed their best finishes for Barrow on home soil, placing 19th and 29th respectively. Another run like that from the team, backed up by a couple more of the Barrow women, could be enough to secure promotion to the second division.

There were no complete teams in the junior section for Barrow but there were a number of notable performances. If the current group of under-11s boys and girls stick with the sport, they could mould strong teams for the under-13s level and progress through the age groups.

Under-11s girls Rebecca Keen (13th) and Hannah Jefferson (16th) would only need one other girl to run to make a team when they progress through to under-13s level and both have the ability to develop well in the sport.

Striders had four under-11s boys running in their home fixture with Jake Cooper (6th), Ben Winterburn (8th), Bradley Edwards (10th) and Aaron Halliday (13th) all running well and showing signs that they could be a force at under-13s level where there are team prizes available to a four-boy team.

There were two boys – Jonty Dacre (13th) and Josh Campbell (16th) – and two girls – Georgia Cooper (7th) and Olivia Ekebugo (11th) – who ran in the under-13s age group and both the boys and the girls only needed two more runners to make complete teams.

Abby Hempsall was the sole representative for Barrow at under-15s level, braving the cold conditions, showing great determination to finish in eighth place.

Hannah Stanway and Ross Campbell were Striders under-17s’ representatives and both have been in good form in the national schools cross-country races recently and carried on their good form by finishing fourth and second respectively.

l The Striders hosted the event with help from Playing Fields Association and Furness Academy North Site and would like to thank them both for their help as the event could not have taken place without them.

First published at 13:09, Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk