Eight Harriers earn their Yorkshire vests
Holmfirth Harriers’ gold medal winning Under 20 trio (from left) Lucy Byram, Olivia Sykes and Erica Byram and (below) the enior and Under 20 women’s teams set off together, with the younger age group running one fewer lap of the course.
The amber vests dominated the race with trio Olivia Sykes, Erica Byram and Lucy Byram finishing fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, and taking the team gold – all three will represent Yorkshire in March.
In the Senior race, international Katie Walshaw was to the fore from the off, challenging the leaders of Julie Briscoe of Wakefield and Georgia Malir of Leeds City.
Malir had to pull out with injury, leaving Walshaw chasing Briscoe, who stretched her lead to nearly 30 seconds by the finish.
Walshaw finished in silver medal position, one up on last year’s championships.
Helen Berry made a steady start within the top 30 or so, gradually making her way through the field to finish in seventh place, which was good enough for her to join Walshaw in the Yorkshire team.
With strong runs from Ruby Sykes in 21st and Margaret Sykes in 27th, the Holmfirth women secured team bronze medals behind Rotherham Harriers and Leeds City.
Holmfirth’s B team finished an impressive 13th out of 28 teams, and were led home by Helena Croft, with Kath Farquhar, Zoe Storr and new club member Sophie Fodden.
1 Julie Briscoe 30.24 (Wakefield), 2 Katie Walshaw 30.53, 7 Helen Berry 31.43, 21 Ruby Sykes 34.28, 27 Margaret Sykes 34.58, 33 Helena Croft 35.35, 35 Kath Farquhar 35.42, 83 Zoe Storr 40.09, 143 Sophie Fodden 49.33
The Senior and Junior Men’s race was run together, with the Junior men running one lap fewer.
Unfortunately Chris Law was unable to start the race due to an Achilles injury, which left Aaron Kettlewell leading the way for Holmfirth.
Kettlewell started strongly and put up a good challenge to finish in seventh place (28.31) and secure a place in the Yorkshire team.
Also running well was Lavell Pierre who finished in a respectable 19th (32.14).
Making his debut in the senior ranks was Lewis Byram, who had an impressive run to finish in 10th (35.23).
Stu Sharp was next home in 35th (37.14) and veteran Dave Watson ran a solid race to finish 41st (37.28), while Kai Sunman, another senior debutant, chased hard to finish in 58th (38.10).
Dan Shaw worked hard for 77th (39.19) and the final counter for the team and securing sixth team place was Steve Green in 104th (40.54).
113 Craig Boggon (41.41), 142 Dan Stewart (42.31), 152 Jonny Sykes (42.57), 154 Mark Law (43.04), 206 Simon Barrans (46.33), 235 Kevin Yewlett (49.09) and 242 Rob Kersey (49.44).