Yorkshire County Cross Country Championships

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County Honours for Harriers

A small team of juniors made the journey to Ripon on Saturday to take part in the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships at Lightwater Valley. Despite the heavy rain the previous week, the course was good going and far less muddy than in previous years.

In the U13 girls' race, Isabel Richardson and Imogen Wolff were neck and neck throughout the race in a small pack of girls chasing the race winner Ruby Simpson of Hallamshire Harriers. In the sprint for the line, Isobel just pipped Imogen with the girls finishing in 6th and 7th and both securing places in the Yorkshire team. They were closely followed by Elena Inch just a few seconds down in 12th place. The girls came away with bronze team medals which was excellent amongst some tough competition.

In the U13 boys' race, Calum McFarlane ran strongly and moved well through the field after a difficult start to finish 42nd. Jack Sunderland in his first race as a U13 coped well with the longer distance and finished in 59th. The club had two representatives in both the U15 and U17 age groups. Zara Tyas continued her run of good form in cross country and finished 13th, her strong start paying dividends. Amelie Stewart also ran strongly to finish in 54th. In the U17 women’s race, Juliette Branford and Cara Inch both ran well. Juliette finishing in 11th and Cara in 16th. This team, like many of the others, was affected by athletes missing the competition due to colds and flu.

The Under 20 and Senior Women raced together, with the younger age group running one less lap of the course; 6350m and 8240m respectively. Illness and injury also affected the Harriers senior teams, but they did have just enough to finish a team in each race.

Lucy Byram had a great race taking bronze in the U20s (24:53), supported by her sister Erica in 7th (25:59) and with Amy Kettlewell, in 13th (29:01) the girls took team Gold for the second successive year. The Byram sisters will represent Yorkshire at Loughborough in March.

In the Senior race, Helen Berry demonstrated her experience, running a well-paced race, gradually moving through the field after the initial fast start to finish in 7th place (31:11). With a team of nine to be selected, it was good enough for her to gain another Yorkshire team vest for the Inter-Counties race in March. With strong runs from Ruby Sykes in 20th (32:43), Claire Leaver-Hewitt in 25th (33:50) and Helena Croft in 62nd (37:54) the team were fourth ‘A’ team. The race was run by GB International Claire Duck of Leeds City AC, who ran in the World Cross Country Championships last year. Leeds also took the team title from Hallamshire and Rotherham.

The Senior and Junior Men’s race was also run together with the Junior men running one lap less. The sole representative in the Junior men’s race, over the same distance as the Senior Women, was Harry Shelbourne who finished 11th in 32:29.

In the Senior race, over 10,320m, and 5 laps, it was hard for spectators and athletes to differentiate the mid-pack from lapped athletes. Making his debut in the senior ranks was youngster Aaron Kettlewell, who with Lewis Byram, started strongly and were together for much of the first couple of laps. The pace was hard to maintain and whilst Aaron went on to finish 19th (36:41), Lewis returned in 32nd (37:58), having just been pipped by Alex Robinson who had an outstanding run in 30th (37:29). Stu Sharp was next home in 49th (39:18), closely followed by vet Steve Green in 51st (39:24) who demonstrates he can still compete against the younger field. The final counter for the team and securing 4th place was Tim Street in 58th (40:02).

The men’s race was won convincingly by Leeds City AC’s Emile Cairess. Leeds City dominated the senior events, also taking the men’s team title. With Rotherham and Hallamshire taking silver and bronze, it was an impressive show for Holmfirth – a club with a much smaller catchment - to finish just outside the medals.

Other Holmfirth placings: 79th Lavell Pierre 41:00, 94th Dan Shaw 41:57, 123rd Dan Stewart 43:37, 133rd Chris Beadle 44:10, 136th Jake Harman 44:19, 153rd John Ewart 45:06, 155th Andrew Shelbourne 45:13, 208th Karl Dransfield 49:36 and 227th Rob Kersey (52:16),

The Harriers will next be in action at the North of England Cross Country Championships to be held on 27th January at Harewood House in Leeds.

Link to results: https://www.northernathletics.org.uk/download/
yorkshire-cross-country-championship-results-2018/

Link to photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hhac/
albums/72157668222989269/with/38659962995/