The London Marathon was back again this year with wave starts to spread out the thousands of runners. The format this year ensured that the course was less congested which eased the stress and frustration when running. Halifax Harriers had six runners amongst the thousands taking part. First back was Ryan Barker 2:59:01, followed by James O’Rourke 3:06:26 (PB), Paul Hopkinson 3:39:48, Angela Clarke 3:42:13, Nigel Taylor 4:16:01 and Andrea Ackroyd 4:22:12 (PB).
At the Chester Marathon Halifax Harriers had four runners, first back being Tom Paget 3:50:46, followed by Hazel Berrett 3:53:57 (Club F55 Record), Robert Hick 4:38:37 (PB) and David Parrington 5:28:51.
WEST YORKSHIRE CROSS COUNTRY
The first West Yorkshire Cross Country took place at Cleckheaton last weekend and there were some good results by Halifax Harriers runners.
Five Under 11 boys competed with Albert Jones first back in 14th place, Ewan Edwards 16, Rory Smith 21, Ziggy Jackson 25 and James Hall 28.
In the Under 11 girls, Poppy Jowett had an excellent run to finish 4th with Paige Richardson 19 and Annabelle Aghahowa 33.
The Under 13 boys had Joseph Stone first back in 13th, Ben Slow 14, Beau Clark 17 and Ralf Jones 27.
Kitty Harrison Sargent once again showed her potential finishing 3rd with Faye Skilbeck 11.
The Under 15 boys and girls had William Cattermole 13 and Jayde McGregor 16.
Alex Franklin in the Under 17 men’s had a superb run finishing second, with Ned Hughes close behind in 5th place. In the Under 17 ladies, Molly Firth was 11th.
The Under 20 ladies had Verity Clements 2nd with club mate Anna Bosford 3rd.
In the senior men’s, Thomas Hodgson came 9th and Michael Gaughan 14th. Michael King was 9th M40 and Stephen Fitz-Costa 5th M55.
In the full marathon, Halifax Harriers father and son duo, Will and Fred Carver, had an excellent run to finish as second pair in the race in 4:21:46.
In the half marathon, Josh Hall-Brown excelled in his first fell race to finish in second place with a time of 1:47:20. Also running for Halifax Harriers in the half were Hazel Berrett, second F50 in 2:25:43, Sally Shacklock who finished in 2:44:12 and Jenny St Romaine in 3:25:18.arrH
At the Great North Run, Stephen Rainbow finished in 1:28:08, with Chris Burrell 2:03:38 and Jasswinder Sandhu 2:18:53.
Halifax Harriers were well represented at the Vale of York half marathon, which is run on flat country roads near Wistow. Niall Smith finished first for the club in 1:26:12 and the first lady back for Halifax Harriers was Erika Nightingale in a PB of 1:38:21. Stephen Fitz-Costa and Stefanie Dickinson set PB’s of 1:39:40 and 1:47:11 respectively.
Other runners for the club were Jonny Lister 1:38:06, Paul Hopkinson 1:43:33, Marc Rocheteau 1:45:01, Samantha Layfield 1:58:45, David Parrington 2:02:15, John Moore 2:11:07 and Kirsty Carver 2:30:42.
April Caufield was first lady at the Shepley 10k in 45:14 and at the Tholthorpe 10k, Daniel Ryan finished in 57:05.
Halifax Harriers had a small, but successful, team at the Yorkshire Track and Field Championships held at York University Athletics Stadium.
Two club records were set. One by Freddie Bentley in the U15 Boys 80m hurdles with a time of 13.60 and the other by Thomas Hodgson in the Senior Mens 5000m in a time of 15:24.23.
The following members made the finals of their events. Freya Burgin U17 discuss 20.24m (4th), Eli Cattermole U13 long jump 3.42m (9th), Freddie Bentley U15 long jump 5.03m (3rd), 200m 25.19 (2nd), 100m 12.20 (3rd), Will Cattermole U15 3000m 10:55.76 (7th), Javelin 14.84m (6th), 1500m 5:08.44 (8th), Jayde McGregor U15 long jump 3.48m (13th), Sam Keighley U13 800m 2:22.75 (3rd), Nia Harrison Sargent U15 800m 2:17.72 (1st).