Pace hots up with Grand Prix races
JULY is proving to be a busy period for the Harriers with the Burnley & Pendle Grand Prix races dominating the calendar. Wednesday saw the fifth round at Padiham for the Greenway 5K and it proved successful for club captain Stephen Corbishley with his first win of the series.
Stephen crossed the finish line after 15mins 59secs. Jon Cleaver was again the first male veteran over 40, just missing out on second place by three seconds from Clayton’s Daniel Fleming in 16mins 21secs.
Ben Kirkman impressed with fifth place and a new personal best time of 16mins 23secs and Sean Greenwood, much more at home on the fells, made it four Rossendale Harriers in the top ten places with tenth in 17mins 03secs. The evergreen Alan Lundberg-Bury claimed the MV55 prize after 18mins 16secs and Emma Richardson was second woman with a 19mins 06secs, clocking in 30th place from a total of 177 runners.
Rossendale’s juniors were also in action with their best five races from eight to count. Joey Holt was the second U9 boy, Ruby Cleaver third U13 girl and Alice Carr claimed the first U11 girl prize.
Conditions were pretty brutal for Sunday’s Great Hameldon fell race as the runners had to contend with the stifling heat and over 1,100 feet of ascent over the six mile course.
After a climb up the Coppice the runners descended and crossed under the bypass before climbing again up to the King’s Highway and at this point, Joe Hopley and Will Curry were in second and third places behind the eventual winner, Barlick’s Jimmy Craig, with Stephen Corbishley and Jon Cleaver trailing some distance away.
A more gradual incline followed before the steep climb up to the summit of Great Hameldon where Craig made his decisive move and pulled well
Joe Hopley’s impressive third place earned him the Junior Man’s prize
clear of the field.
However, Corbishley’s descending skills proved very useful as he overtook Hopley and Curry to take second place but 26 seconds adrift of Craig after 41mins 09secs of running.
Joe Hopley’s very impressive third place in 41mins 34secs earned him the Junior Man’s prize, a mature performance beyond his years in very demanding conditions.
Jon Cleaver went a stage further in cementing his veteran dominance in the series with a fine fourth place in 41mins 46secs and Will Curry will improve even further once he has perfected his descending skills but he should be very pleased with his seventh place, 42mins 59secs, from 177 runners.
Alan Lundberg-Bury will almost certainly win the overall MV55 title after another win in his category on Sunday with 12th overall in 45mins 23secs,
Thornton Taylor also won his MV60 category in 30th place and Emma Richardson was again on the podium with 24th overall and third woman.
There were also junior races and in the U9s Arthur Grenfell enjoyed his first win with Joey Holt in second place.
Harry Hopkinson was second U11 boy, Ruby Cleaver third U13 girl and Alice Carr claimed top spot in the U11 girls.
After the Covid lockdown the junior section is thriving and on August 14 they will be taking part in sponsored runs at Marl Pits to raise funds for the track replacement fund which, after just a few weeks, and after generous donations from the local community including local businesses, has raised £125,000 and while we will continue to fundraise to complete the project it looks like Rossendale will at last have an all weather synthetic surface, a great result.