Jackson to the fore as Valley’s women leap to team triumph in Peaks
Calder Valley Fell Runners’ open and women’s teams built on their strong starts to the season at the Lad’s Leap, the first short counter in this year’s English Championships.
In the women’s race, Charlotte Jackson was the first back for the club, taking 23rd place in 1:05:28.
Natasha Butterfield (second WV40) and Stella Chrisanthou (third WV50) celebrated podium places in their age categories and they were joined by Valley’s women’s captain Cass Chisholm to form the winning WV40 team.
Martin Howard had his sights set on breaking into the top 10 in the open race and he excelled on the technical and muddy terrain, earning himself eighth place in a time of 47:13.
The open veterans were also in fine form, with strong individual results for Math Roberts (first MV40), Shaun Godsman (first MV50), Gavin Mulholland (second MV50) and Adam Osborne (third MV45).
The quartet claimed first place in the MV40 team standings, while Godsman, Mulholland and Mark Burton also clinched MV50 team victory.
Seven club juniors braved the onset of Storm Kathleen, heading to Barley in the foothills of Pendle for the latest counter in the junior club championships.
The races doubled as the Lancashire championship, which gave some of the visiting Calder youth the added incentive of pinching podium spots from the county next door.
Despite struggling with a recent illness, Teddy Haigh stormed to a fine third place finish in the U9s race.
Jules Ciolino, Leo Wright and Alfie Hobday took the wrong line early in the U11s race but fought back to finish strongly.
Unfortunately the boys took the wrong line up the first hill and found themselves towards the back of the pack. Despite this mishap, they fought back to finish valiantly.
In the U15s, Joe Stone smiled all the way to a second place finish, not far behind winner, Ilkley’s Robert Carter.
Having recently stepped up an age group, Harry Cliff was unfazed as he claimed a fine top-10 finish.
Not far behind, in 15th, was Ted Parker as the youngsters again showed how much potential there is within the club’s junior ranks.