Barrowford proves fruitful for Harriers
● Charlie Taylor finished first male junior at Barrowford ATHLETICS STEVE DUXBURY
ALARGE contingent of Harriers, 16 in all, made their way to Barrowford on Friday evening to contest the Podium 5K road races on the Steven Burke cycle track and most of them came away with new personal bests for the distance.
The weather was perfect for most of the evening, especially for the B race, which saw Charlie Taylor finish in ninth place and
first male junior in a 190 strong field in 19mins 00secs, two seconds shy of his pb.
It was a measured performance from the youngster and no doubt he’ll run quicker by the end of the season.
MV50 Ronnie Turner was next home for the Harriers in 28th place in 20mins 02secs and third in his veteran category.
Nigel Goldswain clocked 20mins 26secs for 39th spot and Dylan Smith was 42nd and second male junior.
Steven Mellor, Sophie Howard, Ken Taylor (1st MV70), Karen Goldswain, Sissel Lundberg-Bury and Eileen Wadsworth also ran.
In the A race Marc Barrett clocked 17mins 22secs to finish in 32nd place, closely followed by Alan Lundberg-Bury two places and three seconds later to claim the Vet 55 category win.
Jonathan English, Matthew Clawson and Thornton Taylor, (1st MV60) also ran.
Heavy rain moved in for ● Alan Lundberg in action at Barrowford the final race of the evening for sub 16mins 30secs runners and an elite field of 33 runners, including Derby AC’s Ben Connor and St Helens Sutton’s Matthew Crehann toed the line.
Spectators were treated to a master class of road racing as Ben Connor demolished the field in a new record time for the distance of 13mins 54secs.
Matthew Mackay, in his final race before travelling to Zermatt as part of the GB and Northern Ireland team to run in the European Mountain Running Championships, ran a perfectly timed race crossing the line in fourth place in a new personal best time of 14mins 49secs.
Connor and Crehan made the early running over the first kilometre and Matty was part of the five strong chasing pack for the most of the race, before making a move in the last 500 metres.
It was an impressive race for the young Harrier, who finished just six seconds behind 2012 Olympian, Morpeth’s Nick McCormick, and in doing so claimed some notable scalps, including Blackburn’s Ben Fish.
On the fells on Sunday Joe Waller finished in 18th place in the Settle Hills race, run over 11.3K and with 500 metre of ascent.
The event was also used as the selection for the England team to contest the Snowden International Fell race and was won by Matlock AC’s Daniel Haworth.