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| September News 2006 |
North West Road Relays 16 September
The North West combined county road relay championships always
 provide
indicators of club strength for the coming winter season. Held at
Stockport Liverpool Pembroke Sefton fielded what they knew was a strong
Under 15 squad in the Merseyside race. Very quickly LPS and local rivals
Liverpool Harriers detached themselves from the large field and engaged
in a separate battle. David Forrester handed over virtually level and
Mike Bride surged into a useful lead but not enough to break his
opponent. Sean Dignam dug deep on the final leg but was unable to
prevent the Harrier crossing the line in gold medal position. Still
silver brought smiles all round. None was happier than coach John
McCarten who quietly knew that had he been able to field a possibly
stronger Lancashire trio eyebows would have been raised even higher in
the North West. LPS ambitions now move on to Northern and National
races. Elsewhere a hard working team of Under 13 year olds, Joe Hanlon,
Adam Goldfarb and Matthew Scragg finished overall 13th in their race not
enough though for Lancashire medals.
The tough training schedules individuals are putting in at the Edge Hill
track are paying off elsewhere. Skelmersdale's Andrew Bowen was chosen
to represent the North West in the inaugral UK School Games in Glasgow.
The national Under 17 silver medallist was not at his best in the 1500m
steeplechase but still finished fourth in a quality field. Another
beneficiary of sustained application is Ormskirk sixth former Stephanie
Swift who finished fourth in a women`s 5K road race in Liverpool. She
was only fractionally short of breaking the magic 20 minute barrier and
a few seconds shy of a placing so her spirits will be high for the next
encounter.
Report Charles Gains
Results Awaited
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Charles Gains, Development Officer for Liverpool
Pembroke and Sefton Athletic Club, has
 been
unanimously chosen as Chair of the North West England Athletics Council
covering Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and
Cheshire. The council follows a major reorganisation of the sport which
sees England split into 9 regions. The new council will be in receipt of
Lottery money which will pump about £300,000 a year into the region for
the next five years leading up to the Olympic Games in 2012.
The sport has been wracked with controversy that has witnessed the
recent resignation of the Chief Executive of UK Athletics, David
Moorcroft. The new structure for England was not achieved without
similar acrimony and heart searching. Charles Gains says...
"This is a major responsibility and I am not taking it lightly. There
is a huge cynicism in athletics that centres round the central location
of activity in Birmingham and the fact that so little available funds
ever reach the grassroots base. We are not playing with big sums under
this grant but it is significantly more than we have ever seen before.
The Council has already looked at priorities and we have identified the
area of coaching for substantial amounts of disposable funds. The North
West is luckier than some other regions in its large number of qualified
and talented coaches. If we can build on this we can release the talent
that clearly exists in the region. I would like to think that the North
West might be a leading player in the revival of a declining sport" |
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