IT has been a busy few weeks for members of Richmond and Zetland Harriers – not to mention their four-legged friends.

John Gray and Pippa competed in the North Yorkshire Sport Forest 5K Canicross event on Sunday, May 23. Canicross is a sport of cross country running, powered by dogs attached by a harness to the human who gives voice commands. The one loop course was on the southern slopes of the North York Moors National Park, and Pippa and John had a successful day finishing first overall in 17:46.

Sunday, May 9 saw Rachel Ross Russell take part in the Wainstones Trail marathon, which is part of the Hardmoor race series. Despite recovering from an injury Rachel managed to finish 17th overall, third female and first V50 in a time of 5:27.

Several juniors headed up to the Monkton Stadium in Jarrow for the North East Youth Development League (NEYDL) on May 16. A good day with juniors supporting each other on the track and field events and a lot of personal bests achieved: 800m U13 Matilda Ellis on her debut track race had an amazing run finishing first in 2:45 (PB), Charlotte Jackson-Bowers in 3:09; 800m U15 Thomas Carter in 2:38, Ellie Southworth in 3:09; 800m U17 Gabriel Stewart 2:20 (PB), Shannon Robinson 2:20 (PB); 1500m U15 saw fast times from Ollie Middleton in 5:22 (PB) and Sam Archer 5:28 (PB); In the U17, Tom O'Mahoney had an outstanding run in 4:26 (PB) and Holly McCowie 5:59.

Its fair to say May has had more than its fair share of rain but there was some reprieve on the evening of Friday, May 21 when athletes headed to York Sport Village for the second in the series of monthly Evensplits 5K races on the cycle circuit. First back for the Harriers was Paul Ellis, 122nd place in 19:23 (PB), Paul Simpson 135th place in 19:46 and Nicola Simpson 159th, first V45 in 20:50 (PB).

  • Further information on the club and training nights can be found at richmondzetlandharriers.co.uk