LSARRC News 3rd March 2020

LSARRC break records at Salt Ayre.

LSARRC members at the Power of 5k race, Lancaster

6 of Lytham's competed in what turned out to be a record-breaking night at the Power of 5k race held on a fast, flat 4 lap course at Salt Ayre, Lancaster on Friday.  First home for Lytham was Ross McKelvie finishing 10th overall in 16:09 breaking his own club record by 1 second.  Also setting a new club record was Liz Abbott who comfortably beat the old record finishing 14th and as 1st female in 17:13 just 2 places and 1 second ahead of teammate Chris Mcarthy.  Michelle Chadwick ran well to finish 25th quickest in 18:43.  Barbara Holmes was the 3rd Lytham record breaker of the evening finishing 38th in 20:20 and as 1st FV60 to comfortably break the club FV60 record.  Also representing Lytham was Kathy Gaunt finishing 46th and as 2nd FV50 in 23:29.

Claire Markham

The 6th and final mid-Lancs cross country meeting of the 2019/20 season took place at Ryelands Park, Lancaster on Saturday 29th March.  How fitting on a leap day as there were many reasons for the Lytham ladies and men’s team to be leaping for joy.  After a strong season the ladies secured the V35 and V45 first place plus 2nd place in division 2 just picked to the post by Lancaster University on their home turf meaning that Lytham gain promotion and will compete within division 1 next season.  The men also gained 2nd place in division 2.

Peter Thomson

At Ryelands in a strong performance the ladies came in 4th team overall made up of Catherine Carrdus (26:47), Joanna Goorney (27:13) and Mel Koth (27:57), the same 3 came 1st team in both the V35 and V45 category.  Barbara Holmes (28:46), Claire Markham (31:17) and Pamela Hardman (34:12) came back in 17th team position out of a total of 32 teams.  Julia Rolfe (34:28) and Kirsten Burnett (35:57) made up the 8 strong ladies’ team for Lytham.  Barbara, Pam and Julia were awarded 4th team back in the V55 category.

Neil Tate

The senior men with a 9 strong team had a tough 4 lap run which was 9.6 km in distance with the ground being well churned and muddy by this point in the day.  Andrew Draper (38:32), Jon Tuck (39:07), Tom Howarth (39:36), Ross McKelvie (40:41), Dominic Garrett (40:45) and Neil Tate (41:30) were the first runners back resulting in 7th place team from a total of 24.  Paul Veevers (42:12), Mark Hughes and Peter Thomson (53:28) made up the senior men’s team for a strong finish.

The highlights of the weekend parkruns were Ross McKelvie and Gill Draper being the first male and female finishers.  Ross ran the Lytham course in 17:01 and Gill completed the course in 20:30.

Junior News

 8 of Lytham St Anne’s RRC junior athletes also competed at the final fixture of the Mid Lancs cross country league held on Saturday at a wet and windy Ryelands Park, Lancashire.  In the 2k under 11 boys race Archie Belfield was first home for Lytham finishing 24th in 8:09 with Lucas Tuck 68th in 10:00. 

Lytham also had 2 athletes the under 13 boys 3.4k race where Oliver Thomson was first back for Lytham in 28th place in a time of 13:12 and Finlay Hughes 45th in 15:40.  Brogan Murphy was Lytham’s only representative in the 3.4k under 15 girls race finishing 31st in 14:27.  Maddy Markham was Lytham’s highest place finisher completing the 4k under 17 women’s race in 17:12 for 6th place.  The last of Lytham’s junior athletes were in the under 17 men’s race where Oliver McIntyre ran well to complete the 6k course in 25:10 for 11th place with Ben Gregson 18th in 27:35.

On Thursday 5 of Lytham’s junior athletes took part in Lytham St Anne’s RRC monthly handicap race (a 3.45 mile run around South Park, Lytham), with 4 of them producing personal best performances.  Maddy Markham defied the handicapper to finish comfortably first in a personal best time of 23:40 moving her up to the 10th quickest female ever on the course.  Matthew ran exceptionally well to finish in a personal best time of 22:06 for 4th place with Oliver Thomson also running a personal best time of 23:35 for 5th place.  Laura Bremner also ran a personal best tome of 25:44 finishing 17th placing her 16th on the all-time female list.  Sophie Bohannon also ran finishing 18th in 25:01.

Matthew Holton took in the Poolbeg (Dublin) parkrun on Saturday finishing 15th overall and as 2nd Jm11-14 by 1 second in a personal best parkrun time of 19:48, his 2nd personal best of the week.

Lytham’s junior athletes took the first 2 places in the Park View junior parkrun with Joe Alker finishing 1st in 8:19 and Oscar Drysdale 2nd in 8:23.  Georgina Andrews finished 6th in 9:33 and 1st in her JW10 age category.   Lewis Ames finished 16th in 11:30.