[Photo courtesy of Dave Woodhead – Jack Cummings, Nathan Edmondson and Sam Bentham, the first three in the Ilkley Trail Race]
From Will Worboys & Nicola Budding…
Harriers’ Trail Race Success and Rothery’s England vest
The Harriers were dominant in the Ilkley Trail Race which took place this week on Bank Holiday Monday. The first three to finish were all Ilkley runners; headed by Nathan Edmondson who had a superb run, just missing out on the course record by five seconds. Finishing in a time of 38:47, Edmondson was ahead of second-placed Jack Cummings, whose finish time was an also impressive 40:15. He, in turn, was followed in third by Sam Bentham in 42:35. Unsurprisingly, with these results, Ilkley took the male team prize with ninth placed Johnny McKenna’s run also counting. First female was Katie Walshaw of Holmfirth, but Ilkley’s ladies also excelled taking the female team prize; with Kate Archer who was 5th overall and 1st F45, Heidi Hoad (2nd F45), Jann Smith (1st F55) and Madeline Morris’s runs contributing. The event which attracted post-covid record entries of 213 is a 6.9-mile route; Starting at the bottom of Curly Hill, heading up through the woods on the north side of the river and making a loop around Middleton Moor, before a quick descent back to the finish at the Lido. There was a strong headwind reported on the exposed moorland, making it tough going at times, although the ground was particularly firm for the time of year. Other Ilkley runners to impress included; Ritchie Williamson who was 2nd M50 and Mike Williams who finished as 2nd M65 just two days after entering the category. In the F60 category, Ilkley’s Helen Jacques was 2nd, Petra Bijsterveld 3rd and Adela Reperecki 4th. Tony Pye made another PB in the race to finish 4th M50 and Martin Hartley was 4th M45.
Further afield Ilkley had a runner taking the international stage this weekend. English fell champion Ben Rothery was representing England at the Mountain Running World Cup in the Brescia region of the Southern Alps in Italy. The event was made up of two races over the weekend. The first, the terrifying sounding ‘Vertical Nasego’ was as its sounds; an uphill race of 2.6 miles with a mammoth ascent of over 3,000 feet. The race was won by Kenyan Richard Atuya and Rothery finished in a respectable 32nd place, six minutes behind. The following day was the longer ‘Trofeo Nasego’. A 13 mile run with 4,500 feet of ascent, Rothery fared even better; impressively finishing 15th overall in a race where the first four finishers were all Kenyan. Being the first finisher of the four runners competing for England topping off a memorable weekend for the elite Ilkley athlete.
Closer to home, last Tuesday evening saw the Rudding Park Parkrace. Described as ‘the best 10K with the best goody bag in the UK!’, may be why there were such a plethora of Harriers making the trip to North Yorkshire for the trail event. Like the Ilkley Trail race Harriers dominated this event with Tom Adams winning in 34:17 and Oli Murphy just 12 seconds back in second. There were also some excellent age category results among the 19 Ilkley runners. Jane McCarthy finished 1st F50, Jonathan Turner was 1st M55 and Rebecca Mon Williams 1st F55. Hilda Coulsey was 2nd F70, Jean Sullivan 3rd F55 and Keith Wood 6th M60. There were 693 finishers in total.
Last weekend, Harriers Nea and Alison Weston made the long journey to the Hebrides to take on the iconic Isle of Jura Fell race. A really challenging 17 miles with 7,000 feet plus of ascent, traversing seven peaks including the famous ‘Paps of Jura’ in the rain and clag. The Ilkley mother and daughter did brilliantly to make all the cut offs, finishing the race together in 6 hours and 20 minutes in positions 174 and 175. Alison was 6th in the F50 category.
Staying north of the border three Harriers took on the Edinburgh Marathon. The 26.2 miles started in the centre of the Scottish capital before winding it’s way to the coast which it followed east before doubling back and finally finishing at Musselburgh. Rumana Chowdhury battled the inclement weather, which included hail and strong winds, to post a superb ten-minute personal best of 4:43:01. Meredith Bailey followed in 5:42:35, just ahead of Nicola Holmes in 5:45:20. In the Half Marathon, Ilkley’s Sarah Hayes finished in 2:11:51 and Carolyn Stone in 2:27:08.
On to the Junior Harriers; after her success at the Yorkshire Track and Field Championships recently, Heather Crolla was once again in action at the York Evening Series on Thursday where she threw a distance of 22.07 metres in the U15G Discus (1kg). No doubt this was just a warm-up for the Inter-Counties Track and Field Championships where Heather has been selected to compete for the U15 Yorkshire Track and Field Team. Good Luck Heather!
Coniston Gullies, the second race in the BOFRA Junior League, took place on Sunday. Not for the faint-hearted, the races have a steep climb with a technical scree section and then the same in reverse! Three plucky Juniors made the journey to The Lakes to compete, with great results. Robert Brooks was 9th in the U14 race, Oscar Shinn came home 4th in the U17 race. Running in the Senior race, George Whittlestone was 4th U23 Male.
Five Juniors took part in two parkruns this week. At Skipton, in his first ever parkrun, Sam Bentham came home in 1st place in 17:19, closely followed by Samesh Chotai in 2nd place (17:28) and Joseph Bentham in 4th place with a time of 19:23. James Lee had another successful run at the tricky Chevin Forest parkrun, finishing in 3rd place in 20:14 with Isobel Moore completing the course in 25:20 as 6th female finisher.
Finally, there was a good turnout of Juniors at the Junior Trail Races held in Ilkley. A mixture of sunshine and showers did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants for their short technical trail run through Middleton Woods. Isobel Moore was 2nd in U11’s. Michael Moore 1st and Seb Livesley 2nd in U13’s, Max Brett 2nd in U15’s and Joseph Bentham 1st with James Lee 2nd in the U17’s.
Ilkley Harriers is a friendly welcoming club, open to all. If you would like to try us out, please register first on the training page at www.ilkleyharriers.org.uk and then come along to our main club night at 6.45pm on Tuesdays, meet upstairs at Ilkley tennis and squash club.