Weekend Round Up 1st/2nd June

Members of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers were in action across many disciplines and in a range of events over the weekend.

New recruit, Anthony Gotts, a wheelchair athlete, took part in a number of events from 100m -5000m over two days at the England Athletics Open UK/IPC Meeting at Bedford Stadium. On Saturday, Anthony enjoyed a clear victory in his 800m race, just 0.1sec outside his personal best and finished fourth in the 5000m in a time of 13:11. On Sunday, Anthony set PBs in the 200m, 400m and, most notably in the 1500m when he improved by a massive 26 seconds.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Club President Dave Scott set a PB at the Burnley Parkrun on Saturday morning, before winning his age group at the Kelbrook Fell Race in the afternoon – at the tender age of 70! Other notable Clayton men’s performances at Kelbrook came from Dave Walker (7^th), Matt Perry (12^th), Tom Brewster (15^th ), Dave Motley (17^th), and Paul Hesketh (19^th/2^nd M45), while John Wilcock was first M50 and Steve Breckell first M60 in his first race for some time. Not to be outdone, the ladies also shone:  Vicky Heys (1^st F40), Irene Roche (1^st F55), Yvonne Wickham (1^st F50) and Karin Goss (1^st F60).

Over at the Wharfedale Off Road Marathon, Martin Terry finished in 15^th place to take the M50 prize and there were good performances from Ivan Whigham (33^rd), Bev and Peter Thompson (80^th & 81^st), while in the Half Marathon Jeff Pickup took first prize in the M60 category, with Dawn Richards and Lorna Balmer finishing in the top half of the field.

Also on Saturday, seven men made the journey north to compete in the first Lakeland Classic Long Race of the year: Duddon Valley Fell Race. First Clayton home, in 26^th place (2^nd M50) was Mike Wallis, followed by Dave Naughton (35^th) and Andy Orr (38^th). Chasing Andy hard all the way were Andy Robinson (39^th) – first in the over 60 category – and Pete Booth (42^nd;2^nd M60). Richard Bellaries completed the set in 77^th place while Alex Braysford was unfortunately forced to retire.

7 members were at the Pen-y-Ghent FR on Saturday and a contingent of ladies made the long journey to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish borders to contest the British Championship FR.

On Sunday morning about 1600 runners lined up in Burnley town centre to take part in the Jane Tomlinson Pennine 10K Road Race. In-form Matt Lalor had another superb run to take second place, while Laura Hesketh was first female to cross the line, in 39^th place overall. Despite his exertions at Kelbrook on Saturday Tom Brewster was 5^th, followed by John Roche (17^th; 1^st M45), Alex Cran 18^th, Richard Briscoe (20^th) and Andrew Foster (30^th).  Many other Harriers took part in the event, helping to raise money for the Pendleside Hospice and other deserving charities.