IN a change from cross-country, athletes from Blackheath Harriers, Bromley have ventured on to the roads and indoors with some impressive results.

At the Portsmouth Victory 5-mile road-race, Dave Taylor and Michael Skinner both featured prominently in a race that also contained an Inter Area match.

Taylor, who finished fourth in the Commonwealth Games Marathon in 1998, came seventh when timing 23mins 42secs, 24 seconds down on winner Rob Denmark, the former Commonwealth 5,000-metre champion.

Skinner came in 14th place with an excellent 24:10 for his debut over the distance.

Dan Ayrton and Andrew Rayner travelled to Cardiff to compete at the Welsh National Indoor Arena and both came away with new personal bests.

In a rare excursion over 800 metres, Ayrton made a huge improvement to clock 1:54 and then just 10 minutes later lined up with Rayner to race over 3,000 metres and was rewarded with another new best, timing 8:31.

Rayner was equally pleased with his performance as he sliced over half a minute off his best to time 8:35 in his last race as a junior.

Meanwhile, on the country, older members of the club were in action at the Kent Veterans' Championships at Tunbridge Wells.

Nick Kinsey comfortably retained his over-40s title. The former British record holder for the Iron Man triathlon looked relaxed throughout timing 33:34.

With Tim Soutar fifth in 35:05 and Con Griffin seventh in 35:19, the Harriers won the team award.

In the over-50s race, track thoroughbred Ken Daniel found the heavy conditions not to his liking and had to settle for fifth place just two seconds off the bronze-medal position.

Peter Hamilton was 10th and Mike Cronin 14th which gave the team second place.

In the Clubmans race, Rory Byrne was third and Scott McDonald fifth, but the club failed to complete a team.

For further information about the club, visit the website at: www.blackheath-harriers.org.uk

December 11, 2001 11:21