2022 Senior Fell Championship update & Final Standings
Doesn’t look as if anyone made it over to deepest Lancashire for the last race in this year’s Champs, the Tour of Pendle, so many congratulations to Tim Brook, who topped the Mens leader-board with an impressive 246 points, just pipping Adam Sunderland (238 points), Curtis Firth (204 points) & Keith Baird (169 points). As well as completing 8 of this year’s races, Tim also took part in all 5 of the fell relays we entered, as did Adam, demonstrating great commitment to the Holmfirth cause! During the year, we’ve had some 61 taking part, with 18 racing or relaying at least 3 times and it was good to see some new faces venturing onto the fells. Hopefully 2023 will tempt even more of you out there! Full 2022 Men’s results can be found here.
Unfortunately, none of the Ladies completed enough races to count, so here’s to increased involvement in the champs next year. However, they did make up for it by finishing second at Calderdale & won the Lee Mill Relay, so I’ll let them off! Results are here.
The calendar for 2023 has already been published, so start planning your diaries! We’re trying to get as many Harriers to take part in these races as possible, in particular the English Championship events. First up for seniors & juniors alike is an old favourite, the Stanbury Splash over at Haworth, on Sunday 15th January. It’s always wet & muddy, there’ll be plenty of people taking part (so no danger of getting lost) & there’s nothing too technical, so an ideal way to start your fell-running career! This is followed by another reasonably local race, the Flower Scar in Todmorden, on Saturday 18th February – it’s been an English Champs race in the past, so will be a good test for us all.
2022 Junior Fell Championship update & Final standings
And so another championship comes to an end & I just want to thank all the juniors who took part in the races throughout the year. Special mention for the coaching team & to all the parents who supported & ferried their athletes – hope you enjoyed it! Full Results are here.
To qualify for the prizes everyone had to complete at least 4 races, so for those who qualified, the final placings are as follows:
- U11 Boys – 1st Isaac Morris.
- U11 Girls – 1st Bethan Morris.
- U19 Girls – 1st Isabel Richardson.
Right from the start, there were some great individual performances throughout the year, including Bethan Morris 2nd GU11 & Isaac Morris 1st BU11 at Stanbury Splash, Bethan Morris 2nd Yorkshire GU11, Henry McFarlane 2nd Yorkshire BU11 & Isabel Richardson 3rd Yorkshire GU19 at Hoppits, Isaac Morris 3rd BU11 at Ilkley Moor, Izzy Richardson 2nd GU19 at Black Combe, Izzy Richardson 4th GU19 at Whernside (where she was representing Yorkshire in the Inter-Counties race, picking up the individual Bronze & team Gold), Izzy again at Sedbergh, where she picked up her 1st GU19 win of the season, Bethan Morris 2nd GU11 at Withins and finally Arthur Gibbs 1st BU9 & Florence Gibbs 2nd GU13 at Shepherd’s Skyline.
Looking ahead to 2023, the format of the competition will change slightly, with the best 4 races from 13 to count. Most the English Champs races are some distance away, so I’ve selected an additional local race to have a go at. I’ve tried to avoid clashes with triathlons, track & field meetings etc & have chosen all the English Championship races, which will give you all an idea of the popularity of and standard of competition within the sport.
The calendar for 2023 will be published in the next day or so, but in the meantime, the first race will be an old favourite – the Stanbury Splash Rat Runs on Sunday 15th January – see you there!
Phil Hobbs
