Club Road Championship

A field of 25 Harriers turned out for the 26th running of the Club Road Championships on the 5.5 mile Hawkenbury circuit, the foggy and cool conditions being a welcome change from the driving rain or snow that have plagued this fixture in recent years.

Chris Wolton led the race from start to finish, retaining the senior men's title that he had won for the first time last year with a time of 31:29 - an improvement of 47 seconds. Second place Terry Everest kept Chris in sight until the hills beyond Bells Yew Green started to widen the gap, and followed Chris home for the second year in a row with a time of 32:54.

The women's race saw a superb performance from new member Alice Heather-Hayes whose début time of 34:07 knocked 1:03 off the 16 year old course record previously held by Julia Verrall. Alice took both the senior women's and F35 titles, also setting a new championship record in her age category by an emphatic 2:15. Two other débutants took the remaining women's age category titles, with Nicky White finishing in 42:48 in the F45 age group, and Stella Richardson taking the F55 title in 42:58 in a new 5 year group record, that is separate to the 10 year group trophy categories.

The over 40 men's title was taken by Adam Steger at his first attempt in a time of 35:07, nearly a minute ahead of 2009 champion Matt Clark. In the over 50 men's category, Mark Taylor finished in 38:42 to win the title for the third time. In the over 60's race, Peter Richardson made it a family double by taking the title at his first attempt with a time of 39:56. Finally, possible the most emphatic win of the day came for M70 champion Eric Schofield who set a new age category course record by over 20 minutes with a time of 42:59.