Bradford 10km inc. AAA Championship, Bradford

Season starts with AAA Silver

Pre-race publicity stated that the course was predominantly flat – but just tell that to the 147 finishers! Only three men managed to crack 30 minutes and most were reckoned to be operating some 30 to 45 seconds slower than normal – all except Will Cockerell that is, who took getting on for two minutes off his previous best to earn his first ever AAA medal.

An initial 2km loop saw a group of ten runners grab a 10 metre lead over a chasing pack that was headed by Paul Freary. Three Tipton men were in that leading bunch surrounding our own Allen Graffin; with four weeks of very good training under his belt he was now looking to see how it would translate into racing capability. The battle to back up our leading men and provide two more scorers was wide open; Charles Herrington and Knut Hegvold had made strong starts while skipper Roger Alsop found himself 7th Belgravian on the road.

Above. Left - Allen Graffin battles with Julius Kibet (Tipton) and Adrian Mussett (Colchester, 34). Just ahead but out of shot is Matt Smith (Tipton). Behind are Mustapha Muhammed (Sheffield), Julius Kibet (Tipton) and Stewy Bell (Chester-le-Street). Right - Silver medallists Brad Poore, Allen Graffin, Will Cockerell and Paul Freary. Photos by Patricia and Alan Mead.

The first of two trips around longer loop of the course saw little change up front but Will was now solidly entrenched as our third scorer with Brad Poore next, Roger moving through and, in fact, all five of the men in contention to complete our team within sight of each other. Into the final third of the race the two Kenyans and Allen Graffin had opened up a substantial gap over the rest but with a kilometre to go it was the Belgrave man just dropping off the back with Kimtai forcing the pace. Over the brow of the final hill and dropping down to the finish the Tipton boys maintained their advantage but Allen was only ten seconds down in third and as the race ended he kicked himself for not having been able to hold on during that final stage, feeling that his finish would have been good enough to see off anyone. Another week or two and it could very well have been a different story.

Paul Freary’s marathon training stood him in good stead as he maintained his place in the top twelve on this tough course and, exuding confidence, Will Cockerell was never going to be dislodged from his place as third scorer as he battled towards the finish line. Roger Alsop gave all he could in his fight to break into the scoring team but just ahead Brad was similarly intent on holding onto his place – and succeeded.

An injured and frustrated Anne Hegvold looked on as Erica Fogg and Louise Cooper fought their way around the course but needed another runner to close in the team. Erica broke into the prizes by placing in the top 15 and although unhappy with her time, Louise underlined that she’s going to be a key member of our teams – but with one more runner it would have been a second set of silver medals for Belgrave.

Men

1 J.Kimtai (Tipton/Kenya) 29:32; 2 J.Kibet (Tipton/Kenya) 29:34; 3 Allen Graffin (Belgrave) 29:45; 11 P.Freary 31:12; 28 W.Cockerell 32:04; 30 B.Poore 32:14; 33 R.Alsop 32:25; 35 C.Herrington 32:29; 44 K.Hegvold 32:50); 104 finished.

Teams: 1 Tipton H (1, 2, 4, 12) 19; 2 Belgrave H (3, 11, 28, 30) 72; 3 Salford H (10, 20, 24, 29) 83.

Women

1 M.Wangari (Tipton/Kenya) 33:48; 13 E.Fogg 38:51; 32 L.Cooper 41:53; 43 finished.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.