Hosts play starring role in home Winter League meet
BRIGHT SUNSHINE greeted the 332 runners who took part in race eight of the West Yorkshire Winter League, hosted by Stainland Lions last weekend.
There were plenty of runners representing the host club and they raised their game to claim joint second place, alongside Pudsey Pacers.
Lions’ women finished second team with Mags Beever claiming three second places in succession. The team included Danielle Hirst, Lorraine Naylor, Maria Harron and Helen Armitage with some top individual age category performances. With consistency across all eight races, the women’s team finished a credible second overall.
The men, bolstered by Cam Rushworth and Ed Hyland, were third overall, with fellow Lion Gavin Mulholland in second place.
The vets team of Ed Hyland, Mark Pottinger, James Penson and Leon Severn were third. The super vets finished second with Gavin Mulholland, Lorraine Naylor and Derek Parrington all counting, and it was enough, in the end, to take the win for the whole season, with Queensbury a close second.
Gavin Dodd clocked 1:09:11 to take 153rd place at Snake Lane out of a field of 1,300 runners. Based at Pocklington, it’s a flat, fast 10 miler that snakes its way through the beautiful East Yorkshire countryside.
Paul Alexander was the solo Lion at the fast Wokingham Half Marathon on Sunday and he crossed the line in 1:23:52 to claim 337th place out of nearly 2,700 participants.
After their Winter League outings, James Penson and Jim Harris ran their second race of the day when they took on the Hoppits Hill.
The event was the third race in the Lions’ Fell Racing Championship, and also completing the 3.3 mile route with 820 feet of ascent were Aileen Baldwin
(30:58), Helen Hudson (31:08) and Virginia Young (34:10).
Four seniors and five juniors represented Halifax Harriers at the English Cross Country National Championships, on Saturday.
The event took place on a testing course at Parliament Hill Fields, in London, where 8,000 runners competed in ten races.
In the senior men’s race over a 12k course, Ryan Barker was first home for Harriers in 1:01:41, followed by Michael
Gaughan (1:03:19) and Steve Fitz-Costa (1:14:33). Bethan Davies represented the club in the senior women’s 8k event, finishing in a time of 47:03.
In the junior races, Nia Harrison-Sargent completed the U15s girls race in 19:49 while Kitty Harrison-Sargent clocked 14:03 in the U13s girls. Sam Keighley (13:43), Ben Slow (14:42) and Thomas Wright (17:03) all ran in the U13s boys race.
Queensbury Running Club’s Lorna Dodd (21:31) was first woman and second overall
in the Bingley races’ 5k. In the 10 mile, Matt Dodds clocked 71 minutes and in the 20-mile race, Pauline Naylor finished in 3:33.
Dylan Naylor recorded a personal best 1:11:52 to claim 38th spot in the Wokingham Half Marathon’s field of 2,693 runners.
At the Blackpool Stanley Park 10k, Joanne Fortune (44:28) was 42nd and first FV35, Matt Dodds (46:23) took 54th and Stephen Brook (51:26) was 99th and first MV70.