Haywards Heath Harriers' Shelagh tops them all

The Centurion Fifty are a series of ultra races of fifty miles each. Shelagh completed the Grand Slam, which was the complete set of four races to win a larger medal for all her hard earned effort of covering two hundred miles in the four races.

At the final race which started from Goring-on-Thames following a looping route through the Chiltern Hills, Shelagh finished in a time of eleven hours and fifty-six minutes and thirty-five seconds. The course was eighty per cent trails and twenty per cent road, the course having support stations en-route. There was about a mile of elevation of the whole race.

Shelagh was one of thirty-four people to complete all four events. The four events she completed were the South Down Way 50, North Downs Way 50, Wendover Woods 50 and Chiltern Wonderland 50.

West Sussex Fun Run League:

On 3 September was the tenth league race of the Sussex Fun League at Tilgate Forest. The Harriers had a good team turnout of sixteen runners.

In an eventful race the first thirty-two runners were mis-directed and ran about a mile short by the end!

The first Harrier being led home by Harvey Alcock for the men and Jayne Brewer for the women.

Harriers’ results were: 6th Harvey Alcock 24:51; 16th Andy Hind 25:47; 68th Jack Chivers 39:13; 87th Ian Dumbrell 41:09; 98th Jayne Brewer 42:10; 99th James Smyth 42:24; 155th Nick Fellows 47:17;163rd Richard Jobling 48:04; 165th Mark Songi 48:18; 185th Mike Parish 50:53; 189th Sarah Hamilton 51:24; 193rd Marion Hemsworth 51:54; 195th Caroline Gumm 52:17; 242nd Carys Hind 59:18; 265th Rupert Purchase 64:25; 267th Richard Bates 65:30.

Athletics:

The final Southern Athletics League meeting was held at Crawley at the K2 Leisure Centre on Saturday 19th August.

James Skinner set a new Harrier V50 record in the 5000 metres of 16 minutes 45.5 seconds and Annie Close also set a new Harrier club record in the V35 Triple Jump with a jump of 10.01 metres.

Results were as follows:

Russ Mullen: 4th 5000m ‘A’ string 16:38.4 secs.

James Skinner: 2nd 5000m ‘B’ string 16:45.50 (V50 club record).

Ian Kenton: 1st 800m ‘B’ string 2:09.1 secs.

Jacqueline Barnes: 2nd 5000m ‘B’ string 25:55.0 secs; 6th 400m ‘A’ string 86.0 secs; 5th 800m ‘B’ string 3:11.8 secs (pb); 6th 1500m ‘A’ string 7:11.4 secs.

Tim Popkin 800m n/s 2:48.6 secs; 1500m n/s 5:58.5 secs; 5th 2000m s/c ‘A’ string 9:51.0 secs; 2nd Triple Jump ‘A’ string 10.01m (V35 record).

Annie Close: 3rd High Jump ‘A’ string 1.23m; 2nd Long Jump ‘A’ string 4.36m.

Kirsty Armstrong: 4th 800m ‘A’ string 2:38.2 secs; 2nd 5000m ‘A’ string 19:36.0 secs.

Liam Robinson: 100m n/s 12.1 secs; 200m n/s 24.6 secs.

Kleri Tantele: 4th Shot Putt ‘A’ string 6.34m (pb); 4th Discus ‘A’ string 16.76m; 3rd Hammer ‘B’ string 16.64m (pb); 1st Javelin ‘A’ string 25.92m.

Other Harrier Results:

At the Great North Run on Sunday the 10 September. Andy Hind finished 60th in his age category out of 564 overall out of 60,000 runners.

Lindsey Blain ran a new Vet 50 Women’s1500m record at the Sussex Vets League on 6 August, finishing in a time of 6 mins 7.6 seconds.

At the Reigate Half Marathon on 17 September three Harriers taking part in the half marathon. First home was Michael Burke in thirteenth place a personal best time of one hour twenty-three minutes and forty seconds. Oliver Farr finished in one hour fifty-three minutes and twenty-one seconds and Michael Parish in two hours and thirty-five minutes and fifty-six seconds.

James Bennett ran in the Stockholm Half Marathon on 9 September, finishing in one hour twenty-nine minutes and four second!