Harriers star claims county champ title
HOLMFIRTH Harriers’ Imogen Wolff has been crowned under-13s Yorkshire Cross Country champion.
Backing up her recent victories in the West Yorkshire League, Wolff lead the race at Lightwater Valley near Ripon from start to finish to claim the title.
The victory secured Wolff a place in the Yorkshire side for the Inter Counties Championship in March, which also includes the trials for the World Championships.
Team-mates Alice Feetham and Bea Ayres both made their debuts, finishing in 58th and 70th respectively.
In the under-13s boys, Jack Sunderland came in 73rd, with debutants Harry Gilligan in 61st and Lucas Hall 85th.
Isabel Richardson returned from injury to finish sixth in the under-15 girls to also secure a place in the Yorkshire team.
Elena Inch crossed the line in 16th, with Mollie Scaramuzza 48th and Lauren Hirst 74th.
And Holmfirth finished fourth in the under-17 girls race. Zara Tyas was the fastest Harrier on the day, finishing in 16th, just ahead of Olivia Dyson, whose hard work was rewarded with 19th. Sophie Kettlewell was 25th and Lydia Throssell 29th.
The Junior Under-20s and Senior Women raced together, with the younger age group running one less lap.
Erica Byram finished fifth (24.53mins) and Cara Inch eighth (25.13mins), clinching a place in the Yorkshire team.
In the Senior race, in-form Ruby Sykes made a good start, working well with team-mate Helen Berry in the middle of the race, with Berry moving through by the third lap to finish 17th (30.18) and Sykes not far behind in 19th (30.34).
With strong runs from Claire Leaver-Hewitt in 36th (32.36) and Helena Croft in 58th (34.00), the team finished fifth behind some very strong teams.
The ‘B’ team was 19th out of 35 teams. Kath Farquhar was 88th (36.18), Lucy Verrill 84th (35.53), Debbie Hall 113th (37.49) and Cara Bintcliffe 127th (38.50).
The Senior and Junior U20s Men’s race also started together with the younger men running 2km less.
Holmfirth had just one athlete competing in the U20s, Fionn Kerry finished 10th (29.52), narrowly missing out on Yorkshire selection.
Chris Law, the talented athlete who has just moved up into the senior ranks, had a tremendous run to finish in eighth (33.49) and claim his first Yorkshire Senior vest.
He was supported by another promising youngster, Lewis Byram, who had a fine run for 15th (34.22).
Kai Sunman was 44th (36.31), Tim Street 53rd (36.54) while triathlete Sam O’Shea returned in 74th (37.53).
Completing the team was Lavell Pierre in 94th (38.50) which ensured fifth place for Holmfirth.
The B team was 27th out of 38 complete teams.
Other Holmfirth placings saw Chris Beadle in 133rd (40.20), Damo McQueen 151st (41.26), Jonny Sykes 171st (42.00), Neil Thornton 190th (43.07), Karl Dransfield 206th (44.03) and Rob Kersey 270th (48.16).
The Harriers will next be in action at the North of England Cross Country Championships on January 26 at Pontefract racecourse.