LSARRC Press Report 3rd April 2012

Saturday 31st March saw three Lytham members take part in the 31st running of the prestigious Coniston 14 road race. The hilly course does a lap of Coniston Water starting and finishing in Coniston. First home for Lytham in 41st place was Andy Draper in a time of 1:28:56. Mel Koth not satisfied with a tough 14 mile race used the race as a training run for London Marathon adding extra miles pre and post race but still finished in an excellent time of 1:43:32 for 237th place and 8th F35. Next home for Lytham was Richard Storey in a time of 1:50:28 for 431st place (66th m40).

Laura Ashworth

Katherine Hoyland

Felicity Woholan

Also on Saturday the Northern Athletics six-stage relay championship was held in Sefton Park, Liverpool and the team from Lytham St Annes Road Runners put in a good performance.

Four of the team made it back within 53 seconds of each other in excellent times of around 17 minutes for the 2.4 mile course. Thirty-nine teams lined up at the 11:35am start with team captain Laura Ashworth taking first leg. Laura finished in 36th place and was delighted with her sub 17 minute time.

Felicity Wolohan on second leg finished in 17:28 gaining two places before handing over to Liz Boon. LSARRC's latest recruit Katharine Hoyland, on her very first relay, put in the Club's fastest leg finishing in 16:48 to advance the team into 31st.

On the penultimate leg Bec Willetts showed herself to be fully back in form with a very good 17:41 and Dawn Lock brought the team home for a total time of 1:55:15 in 32nd. All round an excellent performance for Lytham all the team members had run at their peak.

Full Lytham Results: Leg 1. Laura Ashworth (36) 16:59; 2. Felicity Wolohan (34) 17:28; 3. Liz Boon (34) 20:23; 4. Katharine Hoyland (31) 16:48; 5. Rebecca Willetts (32) 17:41 and 6. Dawn Lock (32) 25:56.

On Thursday 29th Colin Nelson was Lytham’s sole representative in the Vera Hirst 5k in Littleborough, Colin finished in 67th place in a time of 20:53.

The 2011-12 handicap year finished on a high note with thirty starters for the first time and also a highest-ever average of 21.5 senior competitors each month.

On the night Andy Reid won his second consecutive handicap in a faster than usual race, being one of eight to record personal bests. Sam Banner once again improved his own junior men’s record with an excellent 19.58, the fastest time of the night, while Brad Robertson in 4th place overall was the leading junior boy with a fine PB of 23.01.

At the start of this final race there were two possible winners of the senior handicap championship, Kevin Ashworth and Rob Goodall, who have each run many PBs over the past year. In the end Kevin prevailed and is a worthy winner of the Roy Stevens trophy. Kirsty Fraser is the junior champion.