****STOP PRESS****

Matt Hallam scored two podiums at the weekend in his first races (!) of the season. A silver was added to Matt’s growing trophy cupboard at the inaugural Rother Valley Duathlon (sprint distance) on Saturday.  Not far behind the race leader, Matt put in 6 minutes over third position!

Then, after the Jackpot Awards evening on Saturday night, Matt headed south to Worcester after an early start for the Peopleton Duathlon run by Worcester Tri Club and hit gold! Just under a full minute ahead of the next position.

A fantastic start to 2016!

The English National Cross Country race took place on new ground on Saturday at Donington Park.  An unexpected hilly course took many runners by surprise.  Mud was sticky as opposed to wet and slushy!  Two of our ladies took part in the senior womens race over the 8k course.  Jenni Muston finished 155th out of 739 finishers, and Claire Pickersgill finished not far behind time wise in 275th position. David Bishop raced in the senior mens race (12k) finishing 122nd overall out of …wait for it…1730 finishers!  The quality of both fields was exceptional!

Sunday saw the Huddersfield 10k and Claire Pickersgill was out again! Claire finished as 8th female and 1st in her age group in a strong, fast time over yet another hilly course! Superb racing!

We know that Tom Linton-Neal won the UTC Duathlon outright on Sunday – more news to follow on this podium!

A weekend of running results this weekend starting off with the Wombwell 5 near Barnsley and a very hilly run saw Claire Pickersgill finish as 8th lady in a time of 34.59.  Claire has had a pesky returning calf injury but her strength on the bike sees her in good form still for running and the up and coming European Duathlon Champs at Kalkar in April!

Up to Ilkley and the Ilkley Moor fell race – 8k and 401m of climbing – was held on Sunday.  Tim Ashelford popped in to take part in the tough race finishing 123rd overall and 6th in his age category 🙂

New athlete to the team Gordon Kilroy started off the year well at the infamous Brass Monkey Half Marathon in January with a cracking time of 1:19:49, 78th overall and 18th in the Vet 40 category.  This is a PB for Gordon – Gordon believes it was the overindulgence at Christmas which gave him the rocket fuel on the day!

Lastly, Jonny McLean had a great run at the Dewsbury 10k last week in a speedy time of 36:55.

Flying starts to the new season 🙂

Tom Linton-Neal scored an 11th overall and 9th in his age category at the Whinlatter Off Road Duathlon yesterday over the 6k run, 16k bike and 6k run course. Great going Tom!

Meanwhile in sunny Blackburn on Saturday, two of our ladies raced at the Northern Cross Country Championships – Claire Pickersgill and Jenni Muston were up against high competition, high winds, high hills and a horizontal ice shower over the 7.7k course scoring well and gearing up for the Nationals at the end of this month.

Whilst we are lolling in snow and turbo-ing and treadmilling and making snowmen, Mika Brown scored highly at the weekend in Melbourne at the Active Tri Race 3 winning his very young age group (20-24!) as his first race in Australia.  The climate seems to be suiting you Mika! Mika smashed out one of the fastest swims of the day and left second place standing with a full one and a half minutes ahead over the Sprint distance.  #supercharged