Sam Stanislaus, Northern Counties Indoor Multi-Events Champion last year as an under-15, has moved-up an age group.

He took the opportunity to measure his winter training (running, jumping and throwing) by competing in an Open Indoor meeting at Sheffield on Saturday 15 - with mixed results. Sam ran 8.06 in his heat of the 60m, a PB by four tenths of a second after a bad start, but finished 6th and didn't make the final. Last summer, Sam cleared 1m79 outdoors in the high jump but this day he was 8 cm shy of his best and finished 3rd. His third event was the shot and any disappointment was removed with a winning putt of 10m84, 75 cm better than his previous best indoor mark and 12 cm ahead of his outdoor best. Sam enjoyed the greater competition of the under 17s and thought the new indoor facilities at Don Valley were superb but knows there is more work to be done in the gym and on the track if he is to continue his champion ways.

Andrea Woodvine, winner of the Senior Ladies 3000m title at Sheffield last summer in the Yorkshire T&F Championships and recently tipped by her Coach to "do well for the rest of the season", competed for Nottingham University in a BUSA X-C relay at Birmingham. This was one of a series of races between different universities. Andrea ran the first leg over a measured 3K course for the "A" team and brought them home in 4th place with a time of 10:18 - a minute faster than she did last season in the same race. Her time was 8th fastest of the afternoon and her team finished in 8th position.

The second fixture in the NYSD X-C League was hosted by Newton Aycliffe AC at Windlestone Hall on Sunday 16th; the course was significantly drier, there was a 20 per cent increase in runners and winning times were much improved. The Harriers had competitors in each of the seven races and were rewarded with two individual and two team firsts plus a category win. Douglas Roberts was first home in the first race of the day, a comfortable winner of the under-13 boys race, with Rory Wadsworth making his League debut finishing 11th, just one place outside the individual points. Niall Scott, third in the opening fixture at Hartlepool, missed the race to give vocal support to his Dad who broke 4 hours running the Leicester Marathon. Rosie Adams was a lone Harrier in the under 13 girls race - she placed 5th, just 39 seconds behind Alex Wheatman of Scarborough who won her second consecutive NYSD race. Last year, Luke Stockton of Mandale and Warren Roberts of Shildon were separated by 6 seconds, finishing 3rd and 4th in the under 15 boys race; this year they were all-but-a-minute faster, separated by 5 seconds and finished 1st and 2nd. Chris Andrade also improved his time despite a fall mid-race and finished in 18th place, identical to last year's position. Jessie Roberts was the club's second success, winning her second NYSD under 15 girls race and again leading the team to first place. All four counters were in the top ten with Scarlett Gray 5th, Jo Adams 6th and Katie Roberts 9th - the best team score of the day. None of the first four from last year's Ladies race competed this year for a variety of reasons. Louise Jackson was 5th last year in 19:38 and this year bettered her time by 70 seconds but could only manage third place as Johanna Jackson of M&C improved by almost 3 minutes to claim 1st ahead of Bernadette Taylor of Darlington who was injured last year. Fiona Hughes made an even bigger impression on the race, improving her time by a massive 5:14 and moving-up 27 places to finish 8th in 18:57, less than 30 seconds behind Louise. Leah Jackson and Georgina Zissler, two first-year under 17s, coped well with the increased distance to finish 24th and 29th respectively out of 63 finishers and the team were rewarded with first place, just two points ahead of M&C. The Men's race was last, 4 large laps of the sheep pasture and a starting field of more than 140 - the course stayed firm with no sign of the previous years quagmire. Steve Hepples of Loftus defied the journalist's pen and continued his winning ways with a runaway 27:37 for the 9K. Jon Orange and his Peacocks of Richmond vest were content to stay in the chasing pack for three laps before pulling clear to finish 2nd and 1st M40. Scott Wardman, home from University for the weekend, was second Harrier home, 22nd overall and 4th under 20, ahead of Brian McNabb, 34th and 7th M40, Edd Richards making his debut in 49th place, Mike Brooks 57th and 3rd M50 with Shane Gray making-up the scoring six in 63rd place to give the team 227 points and 5th place. Jim Robinson was "B" team leader, almost two minutes faster than his 2002 outing but six places worse in 65th place, with Mark Mullin and Paul Zissler finishing 104th and 106th respectively.

This Sunday, there are half-a-dozen Harriers competing in the sell-out Leeds Abbey Dash 10K Road Race, starting at 9.30am. This year there are guaranteed fast times as the race incorporates an Inter-Area match with Steve Hepples included in the Northern Counties team. This is followed on Sunday afternoon by the third fixture in the NYSD X-C League at Thirsk Racecourse with the first race at 1pm and the Men's race scheduled for 2.25pm - and there will be several runners tackle both!

* www.rzh.org.uk