Ilkley runner in pole position for English Fell Championship

BEN Rothery kept alive his hopes of winning the FRA men’s English Fell championship series with an outstanding first place finish at the Chapelfell Top fell race on Sunday.

In the tough 7 KM out and back race taking in 700 metres of ascent, just four seconds separated the first three runners home in a thrilling finish. The race located in the village of St Johns Chapel in the North Pennines saw the Ilkley-based runner continue his superb form in the hills.

This following his performance in England colours at Snowdon last week. Having been in 2nd place in the fell championships standings before Chapelfell and with just two outings to go of the six-race series, the first prize and title of ‘English fell champion’ appears to be all to play for. Rothery is bidding to improve on his 3rd place finish in last year’s FRA standings. The final two races in the series are at Sedbergh on August 20 and Shelf Moor, Derbyshire on September 23.

Away from the fells, Thursday saw the final race of the Harrogate district summer race league. This race took the form of a handicap with participants’ start times calculated on how they have performed in the previous runs in the series. The race took place in Ripon and took in tracks, trails, fields and woodland. Matthew Thackwray's net time of 27.29 was the fastest of the evening and previous consistently excellent results gave him 3rd place overall in the men's category. Harriers also enjoyed success in other age groups with David Foyston winning the MV45 prize and Jonathan Turner collecting the win in the MV45 category. Other strong runs were had by Alison Bennett, Tom Lally, Dawn Turner, Nuno Cesar De Sa, Alan Travis and Mark Iley.

David Foyston, Matthew Thackwray and Jonathan Turner displaying their prizes after the Ripon Handicap (Image: Dawn Turner)

On Tuesday the Golden Acre Relay was represented by several Harriers. Much fun was had by Mike Abrams-Cohen, Kyle Bethell and Rachel Barnicoat making up a relay trio named 'Team Pool in Wharfedale' finishing in 60th overall out of a field of 172 teams and an impressive 11th place in the mixed category.

As always plenty of Ilkley Harriers represented the club at the various parkruns across the region as well as further afield. At Chevin Forest three Harriers finished in the top ten. James Lee was 6th, Adam Gerrish was 7th and Tim Ashelford 9th. Six made the journey to Roberts Park with Alex Hyde grabbing a PB. There was a notable acheivement for Jake Norris at Myrtle Park, finishing 3rd on his first visit to the event. Also finishing 3rd was Jonathan Turner at Bradford. While Lucy Williamson was first female and 4th overall at Severn Bridge.

A special mention for the prolific Mike Abrams-Cohen who this week took part in the HDRSL race, Golden Acre relay (as mentioned), did a parkrun at Conyngham Hall on Saturday morning and then later on Saturday also ran the Hampsthwaite Feast 5K in which he finished 2nd in a time of 18.54! Manificent effort from Mike and well done to all those racing this week.