Well, our team didn’t have much time to recover from race 6 at the TTT before it was off for a mid-week race organised by our friends over at Calder Valley. The race location was Widdop which is a short distance above Hebden Bridge and Heptonstall. We missed this race from our championship last year, but I knew our team enjoyed it and what better is there to do on a Wednesday evening in July!!
It was encouraging to see 11 juniors on the night, race records broken, 1st places and someone running in the wrong race just added to the fun on the night.
The U8’s got us off to a good start with young Matthew Peace taking 3rd place in the boys and the broze medal. Matthew had a great battle and the smile at the end of the race gave all the older boys and girls to encouragement to hit the fell side hard.
Next up was older brother Oliver Peace in the U10’s. Again this was strong line up with Oliver coming home in 8th place and 7th boy. Oliver had a great sprint finish and looked strong all he way round.
The next race was a mass start of U12’s and U16’s from the road side and the U14’s from the field. This allows the U16’s to run an extra 1k then joining the U14’s. The U12’s are turned around sooner, so allowing them the shorter race to the U14’s. In this race we had 3 boys, Jonathan Sutcliffe, Joe Childs and Dylan Thornton in the U12’s, Alex Stewart and Olivia Roper in the U14’s and Matt and Vicki Merrick, Abigail White and Ryna Bradley. The hooter when and mass start was underway, U14’s on way with the 12’s and 16’s heading down the road to the valley. This is where the fun of the night started, we watched U12’s turn at the turning point and watched them climb back into the field, young Joe was leading Dylan after the climb, but Dylan edged him out in the sprint finish to take 3rd placed and the bronze medal. So after watching all the U12’s home panc started, where was Jonny. Thinking he may have fallen we checked the route and he couldn’t be seen. Aliens then come to mind, until I realised he may have not been turn by the marshals. So we waited, waited and waited.
Next home was Alex Stewart showing he is racing well and taking a great 2nd place in the U14’s. In the same race, Olivia Roper, fresh from her fantastic silver medal in the Yorkshire Fell Champs race looked even stronger and took a fantastic 1st place.
In the U16s race, Matt Merrick showed he is getting stronger and stronger and took a great 4th place on the night. He was followed home in 5th place by twin Vicki Merrick who is chasing him down these days and it showed on the night. not only did she take 1st place in the girls race, but smashed the U16 record by 1 minute and 20 seconds. Next home was Abigail White who battled hard on the route and was even passing the seniors at the finish. Abi finished 2nd in the Girls race and was followed home by Ryan Bradley who is improving week by week on these challenging routes.
So what have I missed, ho yes, where was Jonny, or his new name Forest (run Forest run). Well Jonny actual ran the full U16 course, he was missed by teh marshal at the turning point and ran the full route. Adding to this he pulled off a great result and actually finished the race in 29 mins and 8 seconds which would have given him 8th place in the U16 race. Just one word, stunning. After the race he sat on the floor and said, well that was a long 2k, not knowing we had gone wrong.
Oveall, another great night for the juniors in the club. Great to see the vest on the fells and challenging for the medals. Even when you looked up the sky was blue and white. Well done team, you did us proud.
Results: http://www.juniors.cvfr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Widdop-2014-juniors.pdf