[Oli Murphy at the Stanbury Splash. Photo credit: Woodentops]
From Jill Ezard…
REPORT: Podium success on the fells continuing the great start to 2023
The 2023 winning streak has continued for the Harriers this week with some impressive results on road and fell. It was a first-place finish and a course record for Ben Rothery on Saturday at the SOB, the third of five races in the Kong Winter Fell Series in the Lakes. The race saw competitors tackle a tough five-mile route with 500 metres of climb taking in the three fells of Stile End, Outerside and Barrow (SOB) near Brathwaite in the North Lakes. Ben and Abbie Rothery both tackled the race with Ben securing first place in a new course record of 37:07 taking over a minute off the previous best. Abbie completed the event in 1:09:36.
It was the turn of the road runners on Sunday 15th with 13 Harriers taking part in the highly competitive Brass Monkey Half Marathon in York. This is a flat and fast course starting and finishing at York Racecourse and attracting over 1600 participants. Aptly named this year, it was a dry but chilly morning for the race. Nick Kealey was the first Harrier home in 01:21:05 closely followed by Sally Armitage in 01:22:59. There were also top 20 age group placings for Steve Newell and Kate Archer, completing the race in 1:28:19 and 1:31:34 respectively.
Harriers were also out on the fells on Sunday, with podiums and prizes galore at the Stanbury Splash, another challenging fell race taking in 365m of climb over the 6.7 mile-route. Starting from Penistone Hill Country Park and circuiting the upper reaches of Ponden Clough and Stanbury Moor the runners tackled bogs, knee-high streams and tricky ascents. Oli Murphy had a great run and was the first Harrier over the line in 47:59, taking second place in the race. He was followed by Jeff Green in 54:18 in ninth place overall, securing him first place in his age category. Harry Brook-Dobson was third home in 1:02:19, giving the Harriers’ men the overall team prize. There were other outstanding performances: Adela Reperecki took third place in her age category in a time of 1:28:05; and there were top 10 age category finishes for Peter Shelley in 1:03:14, Rachel Carter in 1:05:45 and Catherine Crawley in 1:14:31.
Finally, likely as a result of the busy race calendar it was a quieter weekend for the parkrunners. 19 Harriers took part in events across the country with some excellent top ten finishers: The biggest turnout was at the Roberts Park event where Ed Hobbs continued his excellent run of form finishing first in a blistering time of 16:48 followed by Dave Foyston who was the fifth finisher in 17:25; Jonathan Turner was the sixth finisher at the Halifax event in 19:40; Jacqui Foster was the seventh finisher at the Myrtle parkrun in 26:58; and Mike Abrams-Cohen was the seventh finisher at the Chevin Forest event in 19:59.