“Belper Harriers’ runners make their mark at Shipley Park !”
After experiencing the dizzy heights of a win for the ladies team and the combined team at Teversal last month, it was always going to be a tough ask to come up with another winning performance this month. With Heanor RC determined not to be outdone by Belper once again, we were expecting a strong challenge from them on their home patch. And so it was…. with Belper Harriers taking well-deserved 2nd places in each category (men’s, ladies and combined) behind – you’ve guessed it – Heanor!
However, it was a close contest – particularly in the men’s race where the two teams were separated by only 25 place points. The resulting league standings after three races are now as follows…
Belper ladies – Holding their leading position 3 points clear at the top of the league table!
Belper men – Leap-frogging North Derbyshire to move up from 3rd to 2nd place!
Belper combined team – Consolidating our 2nd place – but dropping 2 points behind leaders Heanor.
The club’s attendance record for a league race was well and truly broken on Tuesday – with 43 runners turning out and performing for the club at Shipley! It was great to see that we also had a record turnout on the ladies side, where 10 of our finest contested the race.
As with last month, we had three of our four top ladies in action again in Race 3: SHARON MELLORS showed consistency in leading the team home in an excellent 77th place and was well supported by STEPH ILSLEY in 85th and the fast-improving THERESA HEMPSALL in 90th place. Showing strong packing, all three scoring girls came home within 40 seconds of each other!
On the men’s side, we saw five of the counting runners from the previous race make the seven-man scoring team once again. DALE ANNABLE, progressing ever closer to that top spot, produced another superb performance to finish in 3rd place – just 25 seconds behind the race winner! Then, a flurry of yellow vests – GEOFF LOWRY in 16th; ALEX DUTHIE in 18th; MARK RICHES in 20th, and BEN HUMPHREYS in 21st – crossed the line within in just a 12 second period, closely followed by our final two scoring runners – SAUL TAYLOR and ANDY PARKIN. With the exception of Dale – who was out on his own for Belper – the other six counters finished just 41 seconds apart!
As well as those mentioned above, there were numerous other excellent performances from Belper’s athletes; including Krish Mahadevan, who finished a mere 4 seconds outside of the men’s counting seven, and Jim Naismith with another pleasing improvement on his position in last month’s race. Add to that a fantastic performance from a runner having his first run of any kind with the Harriers…Tim Holling – who hadn’t previously even met any of the team – finished in 32nd place, just behind the scorers!
Congratulations go out to three other runners, who also made their debuts in team competition at Shipley: Dan Clark, Rachel Clark and Alison Merriman. Last but not least – our category winners on the night… Roger Morgan, 1st VM55 and Malc Weir, 1st VM60.
As usual, the attached results spreadsheet shows both individual and team results. (Click on ’Sheet 2’ for the team details).
The next BDL race will be at Carsington Water on Tuesday July 13th.