Harriers toast success at annual awards night

Proceedings got under way with a minute’s silence for Maureen Paxman, past president of the Harriers and stalwart of county athletics, who sadly passed away on Christmas Eve. There followed a short speech by club president Peter Fendley, recalling all the achievements over the past 12 months.

The ladies Grand Prix category winners were: Senior: Amy Fendley. V35: Teresa McPake. V40: Carol Lonsdale. V45: Tracey West. V50: Sally Staveley. V55: Gill Shephard. The overall winner, with an all time record score, was Teresa McPake.

And the male Grand Prix category winners were: Junior male: James Lonsdale. Senior: Tom Shaw. V40: Colin Laughton. V45: Jimmy Kelly. V50: John Harrison. V55: John Hewitt. V60: Peter Fendley. V70: John Proffitt.

The overall winner was a surprised Colin Laughton who declared “I’ve never won anything before.”

Another surprised winner was Allison Donnelly, the Sisters On Sunday Coaches and Run Leaders chosen recipient of The Star of 2015 Award.

Allison first joined the SOS group 16 months ago, as a jog/walker. She really enjoyed the sessions and quickly started to see her fitness improving.

Since then, she has attended the Sisters on Sundays sessions on a regular basis and has progressed to comfortably running 10k. She also regularly runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the JOG group and supported Nigel Dawber in September at the Bawtry Forest Trail Race in aid of Prostrate cancer.

- Full results online.

She has worked on improving her parkrun times, and has eight personal best’s to her credit and is now very close to running the 5k distance in under 30 minutes.

She is always keen to encourage others, and is planning to gain her England Athletics Leadership in Running Fitness qualification in the very near future, to enable her to lead a group of runners of varying ability.

The ladies half marathon trophy was won by Tracey West, while Tom Shaw was the winner of the mens trophy.

The Gerald Story Memorial Trophy, in memory of the founder of both the Worksop Harriers & the local branch of Cancer Research, was won by Rob Roper as the first Harrier home in the Christmas Cancer Research run at Worksop College.

The Peter Collier trophy for an outstanding contribution to the club went to Nicola Vaughan in recognition of all her work & dedication over many years with both the Sisters on Sunday & the Worksop half marathon.

A raffle was held in aid of Prostrate Cancer, the clubs chosen charity for the cross-country season & raised an impressive £170 to add to other funds raised through the league.

The following Club Standards were also awarded:

Charlotte Oakes: junior bronze 800m

Caroline McGinley: V50 Gold 3km & 5km, silver 1500m.

Carol Lonsdale: V40 bronze 800m & 1500m.

Sarah Worley: senior silver 800m, bronze 800m.

Adele Bryan: V35 silver marathon.

Jo McLean: V40 silver 5km, 10km & half marathon.

Nicola Vaughan: V50 silver 10km, half marathon & marathon.

Tracy Hamilton: V45 silver 10km & half marathon, bronze 5km.

Teresa McPake had an outstanding season winning gold standards right across the board: from 800m all the way to the marathon distance: V40 Gold 800m, 1500m, 3km,10km, 10miles, half marathon, marathon, V35 silver 5km, marathon.

Josh Charters: junior silver 800m & 3km, bronze 1500m & 5km

James Lonsdale: junior silver 1500m

Tom Shaw: senior bronze 20miles.

Tim Doughty: senior silver marathon

John Harrison: V50 silver 1500m.

Tony Jenks: V45 silver 5km, 10mile & bronze half marathon & marathon.

Colin Laughton: V40 silver marathon, bronze 5km & 10miles.

The third race in the cross-country league is at Killamarsh this Sunday (7th Feb) & starts at 11am.