Girls guide Phoenix to promotion (From Bucks Free Press)

Wycombe Harriers move up in the world

4:55pm Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Sport By Alan Feldberg

WYCOMBE Phoenix melted the snow at Wing on Saturday as their runners hot-footed to promotion in the final fixture of the Chiltern League.

Their success was built on the back of their women, who monopolised the senior race to wrap up second place overall in Division Two.

Pippa Woolven returned from university to set the pace, and she was closely followed by Lucy Rogers, whose second place finish was enough to nail down the Division Two ladies title.

Maggie Allen, who ended the season as over 35s champion, was fourth in Wing with Vanessa Taylor fifth.

Elsewhere, Tom Claessans (11th) led the men’s team to third place overall with Simon North winning bronze in the men’s over 50 category while, for the youngsters, there were fine performances on the day from Matt Axe (second, U17), Emma Delgado (second, U15), Bradley Lawrence (second, U15), Dan Weathers (fourth, U13) and Paul Phillips (ninth, U11).

Those results confirmed Lawrence as Division Two’s U15 champion with Axe taking the U17s silver medal.

Team managers Mark Delgado and David Randall said: “The key was the consistent contribution from the whole team throughout the season.

“Sixty-six athletes competed for us across all the age groups this season and we’re so proud of them all. Division One will be tough but we’ll give it our best shot.”

Meanwhile, at the UK Indoor Senior Championships and World Trials at Sheffield, 19-year-old Zac Randall carried Wycombe’s colours to eighth in the 800m, pushing former Olympian Tony Whiteman to a new European veterans record.

Randall said: “Considering I’m recovering from a cold and a sore Achilles I’m happy with that. There’s more to come at the University Championships in two weeks.”