GIAAC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS 
FAUXQUETS VALLEY
SUNDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2001

LEE MERRIEN ended Alan Rowe’s dominance of local cross country running with a fine victory in the annual Island Championships. Sussex born Rowe had not previously been beaten in eight years of Channel Islands cross-country running but, after two months of injury enforced lay off, he began the race as underdog. Merrien took control of the race at the halfway stage and eventually won by more than a minute. ‘It’s nice to win, but my main target is the 1,500m at this summer’s Island Games in the Isle of Man, so cross-country is not my priority,’ Merrien said.

For the first time, the Guernsey Island Amateur Athletic Club’s event was held at the Fauxquets Valley Camping Site. Almost 50 runners competed in the senior section over a demanding and technical course that included fast open sections, a muddy valley and a stretch of woodland. The men did five laps of the course, representing a total distance of 5.5 miles, while the women covered three laps. Merrien, Rowe and Nick Despres were in the leading group from the off while Debbie Doherty opened up a lead of some 30 yards in the women’s race from Regina Williams, Penny Buckingham and Shanine Wray. By lap two Merrien and Rowe were starting to drop Despres with Buckingham starting to cut into Doherty’s lead in the women’s race. Merrien was starting to pull away from Rowe by the third lap and led by some 40 yards at the midway stage.

In the women’s race Buckingham had made her decisive move on Doherty to lead by 80 yards with Wray hanging on in third. Merrien had extended his lead to 100 yards by the penultimate lap as reigning champion Rowe fought his way through back markers on the valley descent. Buckingham eventually won the women’s race in a time 25min. 43sec., despite being handicapped on the last lap, as she explained later. ‘I lost a shoe in the mud at the bottom part of the course which is something I’ve never done before’ she said. ‘I was going to try and finish the race without it but they said I was mad. ‘I ran a whole field without it but someone retrieved it for me and I was able to put it back on.’ Buckingham repeated her success of a year ago when the race took place on a course at Icart.

Merrien crossed the finish line in 33-47 ahead of Rowe in 34-53 to become island champion for the first time. ‘The first lap was steady with myself, Alan and Nick together,’ he said. ‘It was quite a technical course and there was some quite tricky bits in the bottom of the valley. ‘Halfway through the third lap I realised that Alan wasn’t as comfortable through the technical parts, so I pushed on a bit to try and drag it out of him.’ One of the day’s outstanding performances came from Barry Marley who won the super veterans class at the first attempt. He quipped later it had been ‘a superb run for an old man.’ ‘I was hoping to win the over 50s title as if you don’t get it the first year, there are no guarantees,’ he said. ‘I don’t like running five laps and I’d prefer to do two big ones as it’s less draining mentally.’ Marley completed the race in 39-24 to place sixth overall. Pete Wickins was fourth overall and claimed the veteran’s title with a time of 38.44, edging fellow veteran Alan Smith into fifth.

(Courtesy Guernsey Press - by Nigel Baudains)

Index | Fixture List