Richmond and Zetland Harriers

THIS week, Richmond's runners were spread from Malaga in Spain, to York, Sherwood Forest, Filey, Darlington and Catterick.

Ken Harker took the long trip to the Costa del Sol for the World Masters Championships (for those over 40 years young) where athletes compete against athletes their own age for the right to call themselves World Champions. They have the same format as major championships, there are qualifying races and finals for the best of the best. Ken ran the 800m and finished 11th in his heat (2:24), the 1500m and was 10th in his heat (4:47), the 5000m and was 6th in the C final (18:56) and finished with the half marathon (even though he hadn’t trained for it or run over that distance for over a year (1:28:55). It was a fantastic achievement to make the qualifying standards for Team GB (oldies) and Ken should be unduly proud of his achievements as the standards are so very high at this level.

Closer to home the clubs ultra runners were out on their slightly longer races. Nikki Fullwood took on the Robin Hood 100 (miles) which took in Sherwood Forest during the race and finished a fantastic 13th overall and the 4th lady (22:35:07 and never again apparently). Also on the ultra running circuit was Rachel Ross Russell who ran the Hardmoors 60 (62 miles) from Guisborough to Filey along the coast and also produced an outstanding result finishing 12th overall and making the podium as the 3rd lady finisher (12:20:03). Over the much shorter distance of 5km, Scott Wardman finished 6th (16:46) and Steve Middleton in 7th (16:57) in the York 5km series. Dan Francis was 1st over the line at the Darlington trail race part of the Stockton trail series and was followed by Tom O’Mahoney in 2nd (18:53) and Anthony Jefford in 3rd (18:59) to make it a Richmond clean sweep. This result gave Dan the series overall title! Not to be finished for the week Dan was also the first runner in the Para’s 2, followed by Tom O’Mahoney in 2nd (13:09), then the charging Reeve brothers in 3rd (Joe) and 4th (Alex) and another Richmond 1, 2 and 3!

Steve Middleton was 1st finisher at Northallerton parkrun (18:27), Ian Christon was 3rd (19:01), Josh Hammett in 9th (20:54) and Ollie Middleton was 20th (23:59). Lee Davies was 2nd at Darlington parkrun (17:32). At Catterick parkrun Carl Loughney was 5th in a new pb (18:29, pb), Rob Lickley was 12th (19:50), Garry Malton in 25th (22:02), Pauline Whittaker was 41st (23:19), Ian Hepworth was 58th (25:04, sb) and Zabi Dashwood in 96th (29:37, sb). At Northallerton junior parkrun Olivia Jackson-Bowers was the 1st finisher for the 2nd week in a row (9:04). Further information on the club and training nights at richmondzetlandharriers.co.uk