Harrier Girls through to National Combined Events as Senior Team Take Spoils at Canal Relay

Created by : Tom Shaw On : Mon, 06/30/2025 - 19:46
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A bumper week from start to finish from the Worksop Harriers as it was packed with mid-week racing including Worksop retaining the spoils in the inter-club Worksop-Retford Canal Relay and plenty of action at the weekend as the regional combined events championship took place in Oxford. 

First out the gates we had a small crew of Harriers as another edition of the Trunce took place with Chris Lawrence, Stuart McCluskie, Kev Saville, Sam Robinson, Cathy Mhembere and Sharon James also continued with excellent runs in the series. 

Just a day later Sharon was racing again joined by Kerry Saville, at the Handsworth Hobble. The course is familiar but looks very different in June as it’s the same course we use as part of the inter-club winter XC series but the dry months give it a very different flavour though still two challenging loops of the woods where it’s rarely flat on the 5.5 mile course. 

 

Over in Hope for the Hope Valley Fell Race.  A category BS race at just over 6 miles with 1400ft of elevation, it was a long slog to the summit of Win Hill in very warm and humid conditions, with a shorter steep and fast descent back to the sports field. Kerry Dickinson finished in 1:35:11 with Sally Staveley 1:35:33 . Taking the 2nd V60 price and won a pair of Injinji socks (graciously gifted to Husband Jim!)

Wednesday night and another popular race for the Harriers as the Elmton Chase took place. Another 5 miler on a mix of roads and trails in a figure 8 and the rolling course not made easier by a very warm evening. A great run by Steve Battle saw him narrowly miss the AG win by just 5 seconds as 14 Harriers took on the chase.

Thursday night and the tension certainly ratcheted up as the most important race of the year that no one knows abouts took place. Bragging rights are on the line as the 25th edition of the Worksop-Retford inter-club canal relay took place and with the scores at a square 12-12 it was a chance to take a lead! With Retford hosting the race this year would start in Kings Park before heading towards Worksop, where due to a tow path closure the turnaround stage is a (hopefully one off) 5 mile out and back in Scofton before back to Kings park. Each team has 5 pairs with the pairs all running 2 stages together (plus a commute between) except the turn around team with a single long stage. Putting the Harriers on the front foot from the start Dom Fielding and Nick Moore made two very welcome returns to racing as they put the harriers ahead from the go with the first 1.5 mile stage to Lady Bridge. Handing over Madi Spencer and Lucy Binch making her canal relay debut saw our First Ladies pair hold the lead on 1.25 mile to Botany Bay before handing over to two canal veterans of Hannah Miller and Sally Ormrod to take on stage 3 of 2 miles to Ranby. Stage 4 is a challenging stage underfoot with 2 miles to Scofton which Matt Daly and Henry Brady made such light work of that they arrived at the turn around stage ahead of schedule as Tom Shaw joined second debutant of the day of Luke Davis on a fast 5 miler out from Scofton Bridge to the A1 and back. Finishing the turnaround with a gap of just over a minute built and the lead maintained the original pairs reverse direction and head back to kings park from Scofton, a fantastic team performance saw the harriers never relinquish the lead as they finished 19 mile course in 1:55:06, a winning margin of 2:22 and crucially retaining the trophy to make it 13-12. Another fantastic club night ticked and as always a big thanks to Retford AC for hosting this years edition and the Marshalls out on the course!


On to the weekend and our multieventers as Peter Fendley reports from the English Schools Regional Combined Events Championships at Abingdon (Oxfordshire) across in all three of the girls age groups, plus multiple boys from the training squad. A summary of the events is below with full results available on the ESAA website.

Senior Girls Heptathlon

Two outstanding performances of the weekend were achieved by Alicia Wells and Charlotte Ayton who finished second and third respectively, in the senior girl's event, both scoring over 4000 points and qualifying for the National Championships at Chelmsford in September.

Charlotte achieved 6 pb's out of the 7 events and improved her overall points score by 706 points from a year ago. She was just ahead of her teammate for most of the competition and, even though running a pb of 2m 33.9s in the final event (800m), could not quite hold off Alicia who dominated the race from the start and finished in 2m27.2 secs, giving her a 38 points advantage over Charlotte for the heptathlon. Although slightly under par this weekend, mainly due to her heavy focus on 'A' Level exams over the past few weeks, Alicia battled with Charlotte throughout and their 800m duel, each with a different tactical approach, in 30 degrees of heat, at the end of a long two days of competition, was an interesting watch, especially for their coach!

Penelope Thornton (also a member of the training group) and Annelise French were also part of the Nottinghamshire team which finished second to Buckinghamshire.

Inter Girls Heptathlon

In this event we had Grace Walton and Ceryn Greaves for Nottinghamshire and Isobel Wells for Derbyshire

Grace finished in 6th place, missing a qualify spot for the Nationals by just 200 points but, judging by her rate of improvement this year, is on target to get to the finals next year.

Isobel (15th) and Ceryn (17th) are new to the training group and were competing in a Heptathlon for the first time and will gain valuable experience from this event, both achieving several individual pb's throughout the weekend.

 

Junior Girls Pentathlon

In this event we had Summer Johnson and Darcey Croshaw competing from our training squad.

In a very strong team competition, with five Counties in close contention throughout Sunday, it all came down to the 800m. Strong performances by all four team members, in the high temperatures, saw the Nottinghamshire girls triumph overall by just 153 points, equivalent to 14 seconds over all three scoring runners in the 800m. Summer had another excellent competition, finishing 6th overall, just 120 points from third place, and an improvement of almost 400 points on last year's event. Darcey finished in 19th place and, having only been in the squad a few weeks, has made tremendous progress. This County Team win means our girls now get the chance to compete with the best in the Country in the National Finals in September.

Senior Boys Decathlon

Ben Shaw (second claim club member and part of the training squad) finished second in this event and has also earned his place in the National Championships. This was Ben's first Decathlon, and he has worked hard to master the 110m hurdles and Pole Vault and will be even stronger by the time he next competes in September. 

 

We now have a very strong combined events group in the club who are not overawed by competing in Regional and National finals and know that they can compete strongly against the best multi-events athletes in the Country. The training is hard but, on weekends like this, the rewards are plain to see and the group ethos is very strong.

 

Also over the weekend and Brooklyn Crooks competed in the Midlands Under 20's Championships at Nuneaton, and came away with Silver medals in the High Jump (1.85m) and the Long Jump (6.55m), with a couple of very slight 'no jumps' close to 7m. Brooklyn is training hard for his next Decathlon, later in the Summer, and should be very pleased with his progress to date.

 

Off to the fells next where Kerry Dickinson and Sally Staveley were out again taking part in the Bakewell Pudding Race. Just over 6 miles of steep climbs, lovely views, shady woodland and a very welcome river crossing at the end. A hot and tough race but worth it for Bakewell Pudding gratefully received for their efforts! Sall finished in 1:19 and Kerry in 1:20. 

Finishing off weekend and again across both days and it was another club favourite across both days as The Round Sheffield Run took place. 11-Timed stages covering approximately 12 miles following the Round Sheffield Route, runners cover approximately 15 miles starting in Endcliffe Park and two tough hills climbs to start of 1.5-2 miles before the stages get shorter and faster with all approx 1 mile save the 400m final sprint stage. Runners compete either individually or as pairs. On the individuals front Chris Bliss was first home in 1:27:33, followed by Kerry Saville (1:34:42), David Bulmer(1:48:54), Danny Watts (1:54:43), Thomas Richardson (1:58:23) and Mark Manley (in am eye pleasing time 2:20:20). Our individual Ladies were Tamara Hazlehurst (1:45:41), Rachel Silcock (1:57:53), Nichola Rumboll (2:18:54) and Michelle Atherton (2:22:33)

 

On to our pairs and Sam Robinson teamed with Kirsty FW (1:37:32), Nat Cunningham and James Morgan ran (1:51:34), Alex Edwards and Ady Hopkinson (1:57:57), Andy Gladwin and Julie Gaskell (1:59:55), Mark and Lee-Manley (2:20:20), John and Gill Shephard (2:24:05), Sharon James and Isabelle (2:37:20) and Emma Butcher joined Sarah Jayne-Baines on her longest run to date in 3:02:22

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