Athletes from Richmond and Zetland Harriers have been in competition all across the north of England in recent weeks and catching-up with results has proved almost as hard as catching the runners, jumpers and throwers!
Sam Stanislaus was at Gateshead International Stadium on Saturday, August 23 for the Tartan Games and came back with two medals and a PB - he earned gold the U17B high jump with 1m76, silver in the triple jump with 12m02 and threw a PB 32m 41 in the javelin.
Gary Bastow has been even further a field - excuse the pun! Since the last mention of his BOFRA Fell Running season at Cracoe on 27th July, he has had another six outings. Briefly: Sunday 10th August Hawkswick Dash, 5th overall & 2nd M40 (as mentioned in AW); Saturday 16th Gargrave Show Race, 16th & 4th M40; Saturday 23rd Malham Show Race, 14th & 4th M40; Wednesday 27th Reeth Show Race, 7th & 2nd M40; Wednesday 3rd September Muker Show Race, again 7th & 2nd M40 and last Sunday 14th, Burnsall Feast Fell Race, 10th & 2nd M40. With just two races remaining, at Embsay this Sunday and at the Wasdale Show next month, Gary is a solid second in the M40 category of the BOFRA Championships.
Sophie Broadway has continued to impress with some fine sprinting in two more end-of-season Open T&F Meetings. On Sunday August 31 she competed at Carlisle in the Border Harriers Open, running 13.9 and 28.4 for 100m and 200m respectively. One week later, at York in the Nestle Rowntree Open, she was just one tenth of a second outside her PB with 13.6 in the 100m and then two tenths shy with 28.3 in the 200m.
Shane Gray had another go at cracking the 40 minute mark for 10K in his first year of road race competition at Tholthorpe on Sunday, August 31 but came unstuck after a flying start. Lining-up in a quality field, with eventual winner Darren Bilton of Leeds AC, he went through the 2-mile mark in about 12 minutes, a whole minute ahead of schedule and, although "the wheels came off" later, he finished 63rd in a time of 40:33. Shane also put-down a marker at 10 miles when he competed in the Fell Rescue Ten at Catterick Garrison on Sunday 7th - a time of 68:23 for the hilly course for 7th place.
Sarah Gregory had an impressive run in the BUPA Bristol Half Marathon on the same Sunday, competing against a line-up of legends amongst the many thousands of runners. Sarah finished 1144th with a time of 1:41.43 and, although half an hour behind Nick Rose and Hugh Jones, she is waiting for official times for the remaining legends - Steve Cram, Tim Hutchings, Mick McLeod, Charlie Spedding and Eamonn Martin.
The Yorkshire Veteran's T&F Championships were held at the South Leeds Stadium on Sunday 7 and four Harriers had a successful day, coming back with no less than seven gold and two silver medals between them. John Wild showed he had made the right decision, to rest a sore back after he returned from Hungary where he had been throwing in an International Veteran's Meeting, when he collected gold in all four M50 throws. Mike Brooks retained his M55 400m hurdles gold, regained gold in the 2000m steeplechase having been 2nd in 2002 and then collected a silver medal in the 5000m with a season's best time of 18:21.1 - but still more than 30 seconds behind M55 winner, Veteran International Brian Hilton of Leeds AC. Chris Peacock was unlucky to miss gold in the M40 800m. A sore ankle had limited his training over the previous two weeks and a lack of race-sharpness showed when, having kicked with 300m to go, he couldn't shake-off the opposition and was out sprinted down the home straight by M Dransfield of Spenborough AC. Jon Orange won the seventh gold medal in the M40 1500m - in convincing style! Leading from the gun and running barefoot, as much by necessity as by choice, he went through the first 400m in 65 seconds before being slowed-down by the residue of a head cold. His winning time was tens seconds shy of his 4:05 target time which would have seen him atop the National rankings but his PB and season's best time 4:06.8 should still see the Peacocks of Richmond runner place in the M40 top ten times for 2003.
This weekend is Great North weekend - the Junior Race and Mile Races are on Saturday, the Half Marathon is on Sunday and the Club sends best wishes to all competitors. Also on Sunday, there is an Open T&F Meeting at Blackpool; there is the Lockwood Bounder, a 23 mile Fell Race from Lingdale Village Hall and the previously mentioned Embsay Fell Race.
* www.rzh.org.uk
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