The venue, Rivington Pike Fell Race, also hosting the U12, U14, U16 FRA English Fell Championship Race 1.
On a warm (yes I said warm) sunny day, 8 of our junior team made the trip across the Pennines to Rivington for a very steep and challenging Fell race.
The race day started with an entry in the U8 race, sorry but I didn’t get a name, just a flash of the Bingley shirt when he stormed past.
The U10’s then took to the stage with Bingley being represented by Joe Carnelley, do I need to say anymore!! On the first of the climbs which was on tarmac, Joe was 4th, looking strong and you could see he could make up a place or two, well the Saturday morning training paid off and ran past me making up two places to be 2nd on the final climb, he then decided he had enough of the pace and took to the front and stormed away. At the turn he had a good 20 metre lead which he carried all the way back down the hills and to the finish line. A well planned run to match the 1st place.
Lucy Shutt then took to the stage in the U12’s race, running another tactical race, pacing well on both of the climbs and at the turn had a good chance of catching the other girls in the race, sadly at the end of the 1st decent, Lucy hit some ice and snow, taking a tumble. Lucy picked herself up, brushed off the rumble which was embedded in her knees, took to the stage again and made up some of the positions she had lost.
In the U14’s race, we had the biggest field of Bingley Juniors with Matthew Merrick, Victoria Merrick, Olivia Roper and Abigail White. The stage was set for another great race, this time the race went to the top of Rivington Pike, not easy for any of the U14’s in the race. Matthew made a great start and was 4th overall at the top, but after decided to challenge a rock and coming off second best he slipped down the field, but finished strongly on the one leg left. Twin sister Victoria kept up her strong season start and finished in 5th place after another strong climb to the top, turned in 2nd place but lost out on the decent. Vicki was followed by Olivia Roper who had good climb to the top and was making up places on the way down, until she decided to try what Lucy had done and in the same spot. Anyway, finished strongly and has the scares to match Lucy’s. Abigail White again had a good climb to the top, but struggled on the way down with stomach pains, finishing in the middle of the field.
Katy Boden then took to the hills in the U16 race. Starting slowly in the middle of the pack, Katy again had a good climb to the top, but flew down the decent finishing well up in the girls field. Katy told me after the race, the climb was difficult and I struggled with the pace, but the decent was great and I’ve never ran that fast downhill before.
Overall, a great day out with our juniors, they did the club proud and did exception in each race. The overall performance of the day must go to Joe Carnelley, what will he be achieving in the next few years. It was a joy to watch how he took the field apart and then controlled the race.
John A.Merrick