Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

Pen Y Ghent - Newcastle AC 2nd, but still hold onto the lead

Wed 11 June 2003 - Simon Taylor

The Yorkshire Dales are beautiful and at first sight Pen Y Ghent, one of the famous ?Three Peaks?, looks a long way from the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale, but that?s deceptive. The race was the second short race of the British Fell Running Championships, fourth race overall out of six. Once again, local club, Newcastle AC, had travelled in force, to what was likely to be the race strongest in depth, taking place on the doorstep of many of England?s top fell running clubs.

In the event, over 500 participated and the talent on display was as good as has been seen so far this year. The weather played its part, temperatures up to 25 degrees and strong sunshine made the runners glad that the race would be less than an hour in duration. At 3pm the race exited the Gala Field, where many spectators enjoyed the other events on show, awaiting the return of the runners.

Down the village street, the pace was fast and Robbie Bryson and Deon McNeilly were prominent in the leading bunch. Newcastle?s developing track star Mark Kendall was also showing a fine turn of speed along the flat first mile and a half, whilst last Thursday?s Hill & Dale winner, Stevie Cunningham, was not enjoying the flat and fast running, he is more of a steep climb and descent man.

Dermot McGonigle and Damien Brannigan were also soon moving through and were in the top 15% of the field. Onto the climb and the pace barely eased as the short grass gave way to occasional stiles and steeper rock step sections. Towards the summit of Pen-Y-Ghent the ground steepens a lot and is often single file. Around half an hour and all of Newcastle?s leading contenders were just about on the summit and then the ground falls quickly away, firstly on grass and then on a stony track.

A sting in the tail comes in the form of a five minutes climb out of the valley to a final small top before plunging back to the village and the painstaking half mile tarmac finish on tired legs. Bryson was disconsolate, 13th in 47m52, he wanted to do better and to make matters worse, veteran rivals Mark Roberts and Mark Rigby both beat him and he had to be content with 3rd. McNeilly was fourth veteran and 22nd overall.

Having the race of his season, Brannigan (2nd on Thursday night in the Mournes) came home 51st in 51m35 just edging out McGonigle, 53rd, and 12th veteran. Newcastle?s closest rivals for the veteran championship is Horwich RMI, who had a stormer finishing runners in 6th, 8th, 9th and 13th to score 36 points. Newcastle, with Jim Patterson as fourth counter in 60th place in 56m43, scored 79 points to scrape home in second place.

This gives the Newcastle vets three wins and a second place, with Horwich one win and one second. Two wins for Horwich in the final two races of the season would make them equal with Newcastle, so the local lads will be looking to try and finish matters in Skiddaw on the first Sunday in July.

Other notable Northern Ireland performances on the day were Warrenpoint?s Tricia Sloan, 6th in the ladies race and BARF?s Jim Brown 94th overall in 54m37. Richard Rodgers was 101st in 54m52, Stevie Cunningham 140th in 56m52, Kookie O?Hagan 142nd (61st vet) in 56m56, Mark Kendall 165th in 58m01 and Eddie O?Hagan 214th.

BOGBOY