Portland on agenda for indoor hopefuls

Luke Cutts (City of Sheffield and Dearne) is going for his fourth consecutive title. He is in good form, having cleared 5.70 twice recently but needs 5.77 for world indoor selection whilst Scott Lincoln (City of York) is favourite for the shot following his recent personal best of 18.68.

On the track, Lee Emanuel (City of Sheffield) achieved the qualifying mark of 3:39 in the 1,500m but he has also entered the 3,000m where he won silver at last year’s European Indoors. Mukhtar Mohammed (Sheffield RC) defends his 800m title. He had not raced since June until an indoor meeting in Stockholm last weekend when he ran 1:48.41.

The National Cross-Country Championships take place at Donington Park today with nearly 8,000 runners entered across the age groups. Leeds City have been medallists in the senior men’s race for 13 consecutive years and will be looking to extend what is an unprecedented achievement.

Carl Smith led them home in the Northern Championship where they finished runners-up behind Salford.

They expect to have much the same squad but, with some strong opposition from Southern and Midlands clubs, it will not be an easy task to keep their sequence going.

Andy Heyes (Hallamshire) is entered but is more likely to run in the British Indoor Championships. In the women’s race, Leeds City’s Claire Duck has a realistic chance of a medal following an easy win in the Northern.

Former National winner Hatti Archer led Hallamshire to a team win in the Northern and they will be looking to make an impact in the women’s race as will 
Rotherham, bronze medallists last year.