By Ruth Hancock.
Since our last report, members of Hambleton Athletics and Running Club have been very busy achieving a variety of personal goals and working hard to raise funds for charity.
Phill Heward became HARC’s first recipient of a club place at the London Marathon. Phill was really happy to finish in 4hr 10 min. He said “It was every bit as tough as I expected but even more enjoyable than I’d hoped. Thanks to all for the encouragement and to HARC for the opportunity.”
Graham Finlay achieved a huge milestone of 200 Parkruns in April and chose his favourite at Fountains Abbey to host this momentous occasion. As ever, HARC members turned out in force to support him and celebrated with a special cake in the café afterwards.
At the Kieran Maxwell Memorial event in Middlesbrough, junior shot putter Harvey Wilkinson secured the top spot with a personal best throw of 11.38m and edges closer to the UK top 20 as a...
There has been much to celebrate this autumn, with club members taking part in a huge array of races and events. Whilst we put enjoyment at the heart of what we do, often with the mantra “no such thing as too slow”, we also recognise the importance of celebrating the achievements of those who enjoy challenging themselves to go “faster, higher, stronger”. To that end, here are some particularly noteworthy performances for which huge congratulations are extended:
Harvey Wilkinson is going from strength to strength, winning the U17 shotput in the Gateshead Indoor Series, having just moved up an age category – outstanding achievement!
Joanne Sinnott tackled the Tadcaster 10 Mile and the Yorkshire Marathon, achieved course Personal Bests for both – fantastic!
Craig Keedy came 10th overall at the Dalby Dash and finished in 2nd place at the Bridlington Half Marathon. Not satisfied with silver though, he absolutely stormed the course at the Gunpowder Plot 10k and took home the overall winner’s trophy – what a start to the season!
Michael Hollinshead smashed his previous course PB at Arrachar 10k, knocking an incredible 7 minutes off his previous time,...
HUGE congratulations must firstly go to HARC’s junior shot putter, Harvey Wilkinson, who came first in the John Newsome Memorial Open Meeting in Wakefield on 17th September.
He threw a brilliant 11.58m, beating the second place athlete by over a whopping two metres, and the distance was almost double that of his next nearest rival!
The event was organised by Wakefield District Harriers and Athletics Club and offered a full array of track and field events from U11 to seniors and vets. Harvey was competing with a shot putt weighing in at 4 kilos in the U15 category, and with a throw like that he undoubtedly has a long and illustrious career ahead of him.
Snape 10K and 5K ‘Fun Run’ saw a swathe of HARC runners competing this year. Notable performances came from Graham Finlay, who was first in his age category over the 5K distance, and Craig Keedy continues his success with 4th place overall in the 10K.
Great efforts from all...
Friday 9th September saw the very first Presentation Evening for HARC members, this year held at Tom & Nellie’s in Bedale. Gemma Wardle, the Club’s Chair, began the evening with a moving, heart-felt welcome speech. Much laughter and camaraderie followed, as between courses members of the Awards Sub-committee took the opportunity to introduce the awards that would be available for presentation at the end of the forthcoming season, which runs annually from the beginning of September.
Members are to be recognised for their achievements based on the club’s founding principles which set out the values and ethos of their members: Caring & Supporting; Coaching-Led; For Everyone; and Enjoying Our Sport. Full details of the criteria used to determine each award can be found on HARC’s website.
In future, awards will be presented for the following: ‘Volunteer of the Year’; ‘Mighty Oak’ (for improvement); ‘Greatest of the Year’ (performance awards); ‘The Sinton-Hewitt Trophy’ (based on participation at Parkrun); ‘The Captain Cook Cup’ for...
Last Sunday saw the grand finale of the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cross Country League, and HARC fielded both a men’s and women’s team for the Road Race Relays. Following the Parkrun route at Darlington’s South Park, each runner completed 2 laps in a team of 3 and 4 respectively. On a baking hot day – for March – there were no complaints about the mud, rain, hail or snow this time! But running in unseasonal heat did present its own challenges and what would cross country be if there wasn’t the weather to moan about…Thankfully, all those who ran were able to smash their own personal goals for the race and some achieved PB or season best times to boot. Team Manager Chris Lees was delighted with everyone’s efforts, commenting how proud he was and that he couldn’t wait for next season. “It was also brilliant to have so much support from HARC too,” he added. From a...
It will come as no surprise to our members that our illustrious Head Coach, Chris Lees, has been honoured for his volunteering again! In addition to the Queen’s Award for Volunteering Service awarded to Dementia Forward, and England Athletics’ recognition for Innovation in Athletics and Running At Home, Chris has now picked up the Askquith Trophy at Bedale Sports and Community Club where he is a trustee. This is presented for greatest service to the club and was in recognition for his help and guidance during the pandemic. Congratulations Chris! We’re delighted for you and so pleased you are ‘one of our own’
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Another great training session for HARC members at the athletics track on Saturday 31st July!
As always with HARC, everyone was welcome and all abilities were catered for – from track veterans to those who had never experienced running on a track before, and from those wanting to try the throws and jumps to those developing their techniques.
As well as the 800m and 100m running events, there was also a chance to learn the basics of long jump and high jump, as well as trying javelin and shotput.
Thank you to Head Coach Chris Lees for organising such a fun training session and teaching HARC members some new athletic disciplines.
It was lovely to see our new Couch to 5k group at the venue too, taking a sneak peek at the kind of sessions they can look forward to when they complete the programme.
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Track and Field Taster DayOn Saturday 26th June, Hambleton Athletics and Running Club hosted a Track and Field Taster Day at Eastbourne Sports Complex in Darlington. HARC members were joined by friends from Team Caterpillar, a running group based from Richmond.
After a safety briefing and warmup, the athletes tried their hand (or legs?) at the middle-distance events – 800m and 1500m. 23 athletes took part in these two events, and although it was the first track running experience for many, everyone enjoyed having a go. John Holliday from Team Caterpillar finished first in both events with some impressive times: he completed 800m in 03:01 and 1500m in 06:04, with his team mate, Adrian Putley, not far behind.
After a short break, HARC’s Head Coach Chris Lees coached an introductory session for three of the four athletic throws: javelin, shotput, and hammer. After practising the basic skills with a range of beginner ‘equipment’ (which included basketballs in carrier bags to simulate the...
On Saturday 8th May HARC members travelled to the Eastbourne Sports Complex in Darlington for a Track Experience Day. The weather was anything but kind with very heavy rain and an icy cold wind.
The athletes started off with a 5000m run on the track – for some it was the first chance to run on a track and while the flat, even, surface provided a welcome contrast to potholes on the lanes around Bedale completing 12.5 laps of the track without hills or scenery as distraction was a tough challenge. Despite this, all the athletes were close to or ahead of their personal records for the distance which was a great boost given the conditions.
After welcome warm refreshments and some coaching tips the group went on to try their hands at the 800m middle distance run followed by 200m and 100m sprints. The day finished with a lesson in baton handovers and a 4x100m relay race. In spite of the...
