Store Report from the Northern stores

Greetings Sports Fans here's some race results from Andrew Wiles & Jak Lowden.

Its been a busy few weeks for the guys, with Jak competing at the North Of England Track & Field Championships on the weekend of 18th June over 400m.

There were 4 Heats in total and Jak was drawn in the outside lane of his heat, Jak set off really well and was going great guns to 200, running effectively a time trial out in lane 8 Jak would only find out where he was when the last bend un-wound the stagger, trying to maintain form after 300m Jak was aware that the 1st and 2nd place were going to the opposition but he may hold on to third , sadly it wasnt to be :-/ Jak placed fourth and was eliminated from the competition, speaking to his coach Jak felt that his performance was below par and certainly his time of 50:65 is a full second down on his Seasons Best for the distance would suggest that a differant lane on a differant day may have yielded a faster time - So with this race now well and truly in the rear view mirror we see Jak set his sights on the Scottish Championships over 400m in a little over 3 weeks time and the search for his sub-49's continues.

Andrew Wiles racing results continue to go from strength to strength, with 3 excellant race results coming thru the end of May and into this month.

KIcking off at Stretford British Milers Club Gold Standard 1500m on the 17th May, Andrew crusied around in a tactical race to win in a creditable 3:48:66 although post race Andrews mashed ankle let him know that the victory had come at a cost, the cost being 2 very easy weeks running training to allow the ankle to recover to its normal size and shape.

Taking a trip down to London on the 11th June to catch up with some friends and test out the ankle Andrew entered and won the Bushy Park 5k in a tasty 15:07, winning by a 70 second margin from second place, the ankle seems to have been in a better frame of mind and didnt punish Andrew on this outing.

Next up Stretford, and the Trafford Grand Prix, with a race over 3K, with 29 runners in a high class field Andrew stayed out of trouble by mixing it up at the front, whilist the field jostled and barged each other for position on the first 4 laps, Andrew remained out of trouble and tracking the lead runners in the 1st group, winding the laps up Andy kept the pressure on and feeling confident with 350m to go, Andrew opened up a gap on the rest of the field and surged to the front, opening a 1 sec gap over the next athlete, coming into the home straight Andrew kicked again with 100m to go, to come home in first place and a superb time of 8:28:47, a handful of seconds down on his PB of 8:16 but a great indicator that his lack of training had not damaged his racing fitness.

Andrews next race is as at the Elite 1 mile Invitational at Sunderland this coming Sunday finishing at the Stadium of Light, with a 1st class field in attendance, this may be the race that puts Andrew on map for his England call up, local athlete and New Marske Harriers club mate Ricky Stevenson will also be taking part [he of Mo Farah cross country beating fame in winter 2010] Ricky has a 3:56:00 mile PB on the track so this should be a properly epic battle.

When speaking wth Andrew recently, Andrew commented that he feels his race fitness is coming close to a seaons peak, he is very happy that the ankle injury has settled down and allowed him to commence a proper training schedule, and is very confident of a top 3 finish on Sunday if he stays out of trouble and covers any early moves that the race leaders may throw in.

I am sure you will want to join me in wishing Andy good luck for Sunday and the race of his career to date.