Another busy weekend for Knavesmire’s runners, with the club entering teams in the British Fell Relay Championships and the first race of the West Yorkshire Cross Country League.
-The British Fell Relay Championships took place on Saturday in Lancashire around and on Pendle Hill. The Relays are a major event in the Fell running calendar and are hotly contested. 192 teams applied for places in the race which has a limit of 150.
The race consists of four legs , Leg 1 is a a solo leg of approx 7K with 450m of ascent . Leg 2 is a pairs leg of 15k with 630m of climb . Leg 3 is a pairs navigation leg, with the route map only being given out just after the start! and the solo final leg is 8K with 400m of ascent .
For Knavesmire Giles Hawking ran the first leg ,but did not get the vital good start getting a bit hemmed in on along the high walled country lane at the start of the race . A few places were made up before the climb up Big End to the top of the Pendle massif, a few were then possible lost on the drop back down , climb back up and mad dash back down to the finish in 80th place.
Harry Holmes and Chris Roberts had a barnstormer on leg two, speedster Harry flying off at the start and Chris grimly and valiantly trying to keep up. The pair overtook 42 other teams to get the Knavesmire team upto it’s highest position at handover in the race 38th , and were the 25th fastest over their leg.
Despite slipping back a little over the last two legs we had a great result finishing 52nd, not bad for a team from the lowlands of York, competing against specialist fell running teams.
Sunday saw the first race in of West Yorkshire Cross Country League.
The XC race took place at Thornes Park in Wakefield, Knavesmire had a great turnout fielding both Mens and Ladies teams.
Knavesmire’s Ladies continued their fine run of form from last years cross country season, The Ladies team ( first four to count ) were 4th overall out of 13 competing teams, a fantastic result in a very competitive league.
Running for YKH were :
10th Scout Adkin
17th Nik Vogan
24th Andrea Lancaster
28th Cassie Holmes
51st Byrony Parkinson
79th Qin Zhou
Knavesmire’s men also had a great race , with Harry Holmes leading in the early part of the race and Kim Critchley making a rare appearance . The Men’s team ( first six to count) finished 7th of 14 competing teams.
Running for YKH were :
17th Kim Critchley
27th Harry Holmes
38th Chris Roberts
52nd Jon Pinder
60th Richard Lowson
63rd Barry Atkinson
64th Giles Hawking
74th George Bilsby
79th Darren Hendley
98th Pete Downes
132nd Richard Tarrega
183rd Ian Bithell.
Most exotic race of the weekend was claimed by Dan Chan who ran the 12ish km Aberdeen reservoir race in Hong Kong. Very hot and very humid!
Closer to home there was York Parkrun , with over thirty runners from Knavesmire running on saurday morning.
PB’s were attained by Alistair McAndrew and Jane Marie Bracchi who was doing her first York Parkrun.
The Shaun Lee Johnson Memorial 10k Multi Terrain Race was held near Boroughbridge. Running in Knavesmire colours were Stephen Maddison who was 8th, and Linda & Gary Moss.
Well done to all.