REPORT BY: JEAN SULLIVAN

MARK Hall continued his fine form to break two more existing club records this weekend. 

Hall headed over to Lancashire to compete in the Central Lancashire Half Marathon, a road race which starts in the village of Lea Town near Preston.  His blistering pace, which saw him complete the not entirely flat course, in 1:19:44, means that he has added two more Ilkley Harriers’ club records to his name.  Hall beat the existing M55 record for a half marathon by over a minute and the existing M60 record by over three minutes.

John Hayes and Dan McKeown took part in a race with a difference this week in Leeds.  Known as ‘The Drop’, participants are blindfolded, bused to an unknown point 15-miles from the race HQ, with the challenge being to find their way back to race HQ without any navigational aids.  Definitely not one for the faint-hearted and definitely one for the very fit, with plenty of energy reserves required to deal with any route errors.

It transpired that they were dropped in the Pontefract area, with Hayes and McKeown deciding to take different routes back to Leeds; the former opting for the Leeds Road option and the latter opting to follow the more scenic route, along the River Aire.  Hayes’ route choice meant that he finished in second place overall, returning to Race HQ in 2:30, with McKeown hot on his heels to finish in third place, reaching the finish just eleven minutes behind Hayes.

This weekend saw the staging of the West Yorkshire Cross Country Championships, at Lightwater Valley, near Ripon in North Yorkshire.   There was a great turnout of Ilkley Harrriers at this event.

Harrier Beth Rogers came a superb fourth place in the U20’s women’s race, while four Harriers took part in the U20 men’s race all of whom achieved top twenty placings; Edward Hobbs was fourth overall, Christos Tzelis fifth, Nathan Coy tenth and Josh Beevers nineteenth in a very competitive field.  This meant that Ilkley Harriers won the first team prize in this category.  Great running also by Stephen Coy and Harry Brook-Dobson in the senior men’s race.

Four Harriers took part in the U17 men’s race, all of whom achieved top twenty placings; Sam Bentham was fourth overall, Archie Budding sixth, Samesh Chotai sixteenth and Alexander Wolfenden nineteenth in a very strong field, meaning the U17 men got the third team prize.  Great news also for Budding who was selected to run for Yorkshire.

Ilkley Harriers excellent attendance at the weekly timed 5km parkruns continued this week, with 28 Harriers taking part in various parkruns in the UK and overseas.  James Horrex completed his first parkrun at Temple Newsam, finishing in a superb sixth place overall with a sub-20-minute finish.  Still in Yorkshire, Natalie Gravett-Foyn was the third lady over the line at the Skipton parkrun.  The Robert’s Park parkrun remained as popular as ever this weekend, with Andrew Smith leading the Harriers home, completing the course in a great time of 21:49.  Lisa McDonell and Clare Boyle also ran at this parkrun, both achieving PB’s on this course.  Success also for Harrier Archie Budding at the Robert’s Park Parkrun, with Archie finishing 2023 by matching clubmate Edward Hobbs age category record of 16:16 which had been standing since January 2023.  Overseas in Japan, Simon Lorimer flew the flag for the Ilkley Harriers, with Simon finishing in the top ten at the Tsujido kaihin koen parkrun in Japan.

More great news also for the Ilkley Harriers this week, with Harrier Beth Rogers being selected to run for England in Cross Country, with Beth making her debut in Elgoibar in Spain this weekend (which unfortunately she couldn’t compete in due to her flight being cancelled).  Further to their brilliant running at the Liverpool Cross Challenge in November (which was the trial for the European Cross Country Championships), Beth and fellow Harrier Edward Hobbs, have also been selected to run for the North of England. They will be racing in the Home Countries International at Parliament Hill on 20th January, where they will be competing against teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.