The Wharfedale ladies had a fantasic day winning this event for the first time in great style finishing 12th team overall 6.53.36 breaking the previous fastest overall time of 7.04 by over 10 minutes. The men came heartbreakingly close to winning aswell – just getting overtaken in the last mile to ultimately finish 2nd. The ladies B team also performed well to finish 7th ladies team overall. The full results are here – http://johncarr5k.org.uk/site/bradford-millennium-way-relay/. Thanks to Emma Dodd for the following report:
Bradford Millenium Way Relay, 2013.
The Bradford Millennium Way Relay consists of five legs run in pairs starting and finishing in Bingley. Wharfedale had a men’s team and two ladies’ teams.
Jonny Bradshaw and Owen Beilby set the lads off to an excellent start, finishing only a minute behind the leaders, Pudsey Pacers, in a time of 1.16. The next leg saw Bingley Harrier’s Ian Holmes and Andy Brown take the lead, with Wharfedalers Paul Crabtree and Jason Hemsley giving a top effort to stay up there in 4th place, 10 minutes behind Bingley. Paul “Crabby” Crabtree and Sam Hagger ran the fastest leg 3 time and managed to cut Bingley’s lead down to 6 minutes. Not only did Dave Kirkham and Nick Charlesworth run the fastest leg 4 time, they managed to overtake Bingley and hand over to Gareth and Christian with an overall lead of 1 second! A strong run on the last leg allowed a close battle with Bingley, unfortunately resulting in the Bingley men winning by just 50 seconds. A fantastic run nonetheless by our Wharfee men, with an overall time of 5 hrs 38 mins. Well done! 🙂
The Wharfedale ladies were out in force and in pursuit of another relay win. Kirsty Hall and Rachel Hill got off to a strong start, managing to maintain close contact with Keighley and Craven’s Helen Glover and Claire Cooper and Bingley Harriers’ Jo Buckley and Ruth Whitehead, to hand over in 3rd place. Our “mean-machine duo” Gill Myers and Louisa Pickles were fastest ladies on leg 2 and managed to take the lead, a minute ahead of Keighley. Not only did Katherine Kirkham and Christine Whitaker maintain the lead on leg 3, they were able to extend it by nearly 6 minutes. Angela Donlan and Emma Dodd managed to run the fastest ladies time on leg 4 and further extended the lead over Keighley to 10 minutes. Our leg 5 speed queens Sarah Tipler and Clare Pearson secured another Wharfedale ladies victory and a new overall ladies record time of 6 hrs 53 mins! Well done Ladies! 🙂
Our second ladies team put in a top effort with Caren Crabtree and Becki Throup setting the pace in 8th ladies team. Jill Feenan and Helen Shaw were able to maintain this position and hand over to Natalie Clayton and Catherine Greenwood, who had an exceptional run on leg 3 and made the team position up to 7th. Leg 4 runners Bridget Thompson and Lisa Holmes managed to maintain this position and also close the gap on Bingley ladies. Karen Gorman and Caroline Pollard had a great run on the last leg to secure 7th ladies team! Well done Ladies! 🙂
Thanks very much to Gareth Hird and Tamara Hemsley for organising the teams and supporting throughout the day!
The Wharfedale team results are as follows:
Ladies A Team
Leg 1 – Kirsty and Rachel 1.33.41
Leg 2 – Gill and Looie – 1.18.21 – fastest ladies leg
Leg 3 – Katherine K and Chris W – 1.12.46
Leg 4 – Emma and Ange – 1.24.21 – fastest ladies leg
Leg 5 – Sarah T and Clare – 1.24.27
Men
Leg 1 – Owen and Jonny – 1.16.37
Leg 2 – Jason and Paul Crabtree -1.16.43
Leg 3- Paul Crabby and Sam H -52.24 – fastest leg
Leg 4 – Dave K and Nick -1.02.00 – fastest leg
Leg 5 – Gareth and Christian – 1.10.36
Ladies B Team
Leg 1 – Becki and Caren -1.49.00
Leg 2- Jill and Helen -1.43.41
Leg 3 – Catherine and Natalie -1.18.26
Leg 4 – Bridget and Lisa -1.42.22
Leg 5 – Caroline and Karen -1.48.24