Last Sunday saw the first race of this year’s fell championship, the Stanbury Splash. The 6.8 mile fell race, held just outside of Haworth, sees runners take on a mixture of terrain from moorland to grass to gravel tracks and even a couple of river crossings for good measure, all whilst climbing around 1200 feet – a slightly daunting thought for someone entering their first real fell race!An impressive 15 senior harriers made the hour or so trip over to Bronte Country for the not so early start of 11:30. Conditions on the day were perfect for racing with clear and calm weather and a rather mild 7 degrees, making the slips and slides from previous years much less likely (see previous videos on Facebook to see some impressive tumbling descents).The first Harrier home was Tim Brook in an impressive 53:34, giving him 19th place and a 3rd place finish in the V40 category, which I hope makes up for the later attack by flying Malt Loaf at the boisterous prize-giving! Following Tim there was a close battle between Curtis Firth (40th, 58:08) and Clark Hind (44th, 59:19), who despite missing out on this particular battle, made up for it by fighting a fellow athlete off for a packet of Quavers at the presentation!The first female Harrier home was Debbie Hall in 1:20:17, followed closely by Ruth Churchill-Dower in 1:23:05.Thank you to Wharfedale Harriers for hosting such a great event, and thanks also to Dave and Eileen Woodhead (http://www.woodentops.org.uk/) for taking so many photos. I hope to see more Harriers there for next year’s event, one I can definitely recommend.
Results:
19th Tim Brook (53:34)40th Curtis Firth (58:08)44th Clark Hind (59:19)53rd Michael Sanderson (1:00:45)81st Adam Sunderland (1:03:38)82nd Alex Hannay (1:03:45)127nd Ian Goulding (1:08:33)142nd Chris Beadle (1:10:13)158th Keith Baird (1:12:09)175th Dave Milton (1:14:28)204th Phil Hobbs (1:19:20)211th Debbie Hall (1:20:17)229th Ruth Churchill Dower (1:23:05)273rd Bill Hunter (1:33:06)290th Richard Whale (1:41:38)
Alex Hannay
