From Will Worboys and Nicola Budding…

Success at Home and Abroad for Busy Harriers

Another busy week was had by the Ilkley Harriers, including a new world champion and lots of hot weather hill running.

Ilkley put out a good showing at the third counter of the English Fell Championship series in the Dales at the Kettlewell Anniversary Fell Race on Sunday. Current fell champion Ben Rothery was narrowly beaten into 2^nd place by Dark Peak’s Finlay Grant. Rothery’s young clubmate Sam Bentham seems to be gradually closing the gap, being less than a minute back in 4^th place.

Several other Harriers made the journey and excelled in the 5-mile event that includes 1,800 feet of ascent and is organised by North Leeds Fell Runners. George Whittlestone was the next one to finish and was 8^th MU23 and 88^th overall. There was a superb performance from Jane McCarthy who not only finished 15^th female overall but also won the F50 category. Several other Ilkley ladies put in impressive shifts, including Rachel Carter coming home 9^th F45 and 27^th overall female. Katie Poulter and Sacha Jones also managed to be among the first 50 ladies and Dan McKeown finished 99^th overall.

Meanwhile much further south, an amazing performance was had by a young Harrier at the World Duathlon Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. Christos Tzelis won the Open Age Group Sprint race, taking the gold medal. This race started off with a 5KM run, followed by a 19.7KM bike, then rounded off with another run of 2.5KM. Christos flew round beating a Spanish athlete into second by around 45 seconds. It is the culmination of a lot of hard training for the Ilkley athlete who can now be proud to call himself world champion!

The racing week had started back on Tuesday where some fast runs were had in the Leeds Evensplits 5K which took place at the Brownlee Centre. Ilkley’s Emily Butterworth was first in her category with a time of 22:17. Nick Helliwell seems well and truly back in form posting an excellent 19:22 and being first Harrier home. Kyle Bethell was hot on his heels in 19:31 and Claire McLoughlin also ran well to finish in a time of 22:39.

The following evening in-form Harrier Matthew Thackwray followed up his win at Yeadon with another first place finish at the latest Harrogate District Summer Race League encounter. This time at Knaresborough, Thackwray put a minute between himself and the rest of the field to win in 31:50. There was no shortage of other Ilkley runners out impressing on a warm Tuesday night. Next to finish was Harry Brook-Dobson who came 12^th overall of the 328 finishers. Ritchie Williamson put in an excellent run to be 1^st in the M50 category. While Pete Shelley was 1^st in the M55’s. Jane McCarthy won the F50 category and Jann Smith was 3^rd in the F55’s. The other Ilkley winner was Diane Kitchen who headed the F65’s. Honourable mentions too for James Horrex and Paul Carmen, both finishing inside the top 50.

Back to the weekend and on the hottest day of the year so far, three Harriers chose to spend it navigating 13 miles and 7,000 feet of Cumbrian fells. The Great Lakes Fell Race took place on Saturday at Langdale, with great performances, if not a few navigational issues from Ben Sheppard, Charles Wain and Paul Carmen. The winner by some distance was Finlay Wild of Lochaber AC.

Closer to home there was a good turnout of Harriers at the ‘Solstice Saunter’. A scenic, five mile, Saturday evening tour of the Bolton Abbey trails, the race is always a popular one emphasised by the 751 total finishers. Kirsty Wicks had a brilliant run finishing 2^nd female and 17^th overall. Next up John Hayes did well to not only be 2^nd Harrier home but also 1^st M55. There were plenty of other good runs on a warm mid-summers day, with Joanne Williamson finishing as 4^th female. Rebecca Brown impressed coming 2^nd in the F35 grouping. Rumana Chowdhury, Andrew Whiteside and Sarah Hayes all managed to beat the heat to finish in the top hundred of their gender category in the large field.

Onto the road and the Freckleton Half Marathon, which proudly proclaims to be the ‘oldest continuously running half marathon in the UK’, The sole Harrier Sally Armitage put in her usual superb effort to finish 2^nd female and 20^th overall of the 478 total finishers in a time of 1:25:40. The race is a fairly flat lap of the roads of the Fylde coast of Lancashire and has been going since way back in 1964!

Another lone Harrier made the trip to the top of Wharfedale for the Buckden Pike Fell Race. Just over 4 miles in length and taking in 1,500 feet it is a challenging event that takes place as part of the Buckden Gala. John Marsham braved the hills and heat to finish in 27^th place with a time of 55:38.

For Ilkley’s Junior Harriers it’s been a relatively quiet week, but nonetheless an important week for fell racing as the highly anticipated FRA British Junior Fell Inter Counties Championships were held on Saturday. Organised by Bowland Fell Runners, the Clough Pike Fell Races are traditionally held on the third Saturday in June as part of the Quernmore Sports and Village Country Show. This year, in addition to being the Junior Inter-Counties race, it was also the fourth counter in the FRA Junior Championship series, attracting a large turnout of runners. The various routes took in rough farmland with tricky stream gullies and woodland sections. 

 In total, five of our Juniors were competing and two of those had been selected to run for their age group Yorkshire Teams: Joseph Bentham in the U17 Boys Team and Oscar Shinn in the U19 Boys Team. In the U17 Boys Race, Joseph Bentham had a great race to finish in 5th place with a time of 26:55, helping the Yorkshire U17 Boys Team take the Bronze Medal. Alexander Wolfenden was the first Harrier home in the U19 Boys Race coming home in an excellent 5th place in 41:57 followed by Oscar Shinn finishing 13th in 45:49 and George Whittlestone in 28th place (56:53).  The Yorkshire U19 Boys Team also took the Gold Medal. Matilda Irvine, our only female U19 competitor (and also a Reserve for the Yorkshire U19 Female Team), finished in 12th place coming home in just over an hour.

Finally in this week’s 5K parkruns, there was just one junior taking part. Isobel Moore had a good run at Roberts Park coming home as 9^th female in 25:14. In a decent turnout of Harriers, Alison Bennett also came 5^th female at the event and Andrew Overend 7^th overall. Meanwhile at Conyngham Hall James Horrex was 2^nd finisher and Alicia Horrex 2^nd female. At Chevin Forest Claire McLoughlin was 8^th female and at Banstead Woods Alex Foyn finished in 4^th place.