Another weekend comes and it’s time for the family of Bingley Fell juniors to don the Blue and White and fell shoes. This time it was off to Arncliffe Gala in the Yorkshire Dales for another championship bonus race. This event was again organised by BOFRA, they even organised some nice sunshine and blue sky, a little different to the previous week when we were faced with a monsoon.
No require this week for wet running kit, so it was vests or crop tops, shorts and fell shoes at the ready. All the races are run on the same hill, each having a different turning point the higher you get up. Events started with the U9 race, Matthew Peace and Lilly Smith were are representatives for Bingley. After pushing their way to the front of the start line the whistle went and off they went. Matthew was away with the leading boys with Lilly tracking all the way. It was same at the turning point but then the gap widened with the boys strength. Matthew finished strongly and taking 7th place in the boys with Lilly taking a fantastic 2nd in the girls race.
The U12’s were then on their marks with Dylan Thornton, Oliver Peace, Joseph Childs and Harry Miller. This was going to be a close race with the Bingely boys and at times it looked like a club race. Off they went down the track and onto the hillside. Harry Miller was having a great race until a twisted ankle slowed him up at the turn. Seeing Harry slow, the other 3 Bingley quickly passed following the race leaders down the hill. On the finishing straight, the 3 were still together and came home within 1 second of each other. Dylan leading in 11th place, Oliver in 12th and Joe in 13th with Harry finishing off the race in a lot of pain and 22nd, but finishing and gaining his 5 bonus points.
Katie Smith and Lucy Miller were then on the hill side in the U14’s race. Again this was a fast and furious start. A steep climb was ahead of them and it wasn’t long before they’d reached the summit and the fast decent was being tackled. Again close racing was at hand with Katie taking a great 5th place and Lucy in 7th place.
To round off the day of junior races, Matt and Vicki Merrick along with Abigail White took to start line. This was a longer race which took in the same route as the seniors, a climb to the summit, a flat section on the rig before a turn around the Trig point and a crazy decent to the flat finish. Off in a flash and before we knew it, the U17’s were at the summit and running along the rig. This was a close contest with the leading boys, a pack of 5, closely followed by Vicki and Abigail a little way behind them. The turn came, then the decent leaving the sprint finish on the show road. Matt Merrick took a great 3rd place, nearly taking 2nd, leaving it just to late. Vicki Merrick than came home 6th overall and 1st U17 Girl with a 40 second cushion to the next girl. Abigail came home very strongly in girl’s race taking 4th place.