Harriers to the fore on road, trail and fell
AFULL programme of fixtures has kept the Harriers busy over the past week or so with both seniors and juniors competing on the road, trail and fell.
On Friday evening several seniors travelled to Kingsley village near Frodsham to compete in the Mid Cheshire 5K, which is a popular race and renowned as one of the quickest courses in the UK and has been used for the England Athletics 5K Championships on occasions.
This time the course record of 13mins 35secs wasn’t threatened by Liverpool Harrier’s David Devine who crossed the finish line after 14mins 19secs but there were personal bests for some of the Harriers. Andy Grenfell lined up with 736 others and was looking to go under 16mins for the first time but in the end he finished with 16mins 02secs for 103rd place which, disappointing as it was, was two seconds quicker than his previous PB.
Chris Clare was next home in 128th place with 16mins 18secs, another personal best, followed by, Jonathan English, 205th with 17mins 06secs, Chris Snell, 263rd with 17mins 40secs, a personal best by over 30secs, Robert English, 278th with 17mins 47secs, another personal best and Ellie Richardson, 454th with 20mins 47secs and a personal best time.
On the fells the action remained fairly local in Accrington for the Great Hameldon Hill race which was also the first fixture in this year’s Burnley and Pendle Grand Prix.
It’s a popular six mile race with over 1100 feet of ascent run over tracks, field and moorland and it attracted 222 runners, with 26 of them from Rossendale Harriers.
Will Curry was looking for a low key race before next weekend’s second round of the junior Fell Runners Association championships and the talented seventeen year old put in a great performance to finish in third place behind the winner, Phil Marsden, Horwich
and Blackburn’s Josh Holgate.
Ashley Holt was the next Harrier in 25th place,
Thornton Taylor was the first veteran over 65 in 58th place and newly elected women’s captain,
Josephine Wells was sixth female in 79th spot.
There were also races for junior athletes and in the U11/U13 race Harry Hopkinson finished in first place just two seconds clear of Charlie Dobson.
Alice Carr was overall seventh and first girl, Ruby Cleaver finished in third place and Holly Nicholls was fourth. Harry Walker, Arthur Grenfell, Iona Bell, Bo Dawson and Toby Steel also ran in the same race.
In the U15/U17 race Francis Vidler was 13th and Riley Holt and Alfie Walker also ran.
Elsewhere, in the classic 3 Peaks race Rick Solman finished in 48th place with a time of 3hrs 49mins 02secs and on Wednesday evening Stephen Corbishley won the local Foe Edge Fell race.
On Thursday evening Joe Hopley finished in second place in the Clowbridge 5K trail race with Ruby Cleaver second female overall, another excellent performance.