Podiums and PBs light up Clowne Half

The club was out in force across road, fell and parkrun events, with standout results at the Clowne Half Marathon and strong performances in Race 5 of the Philip Senior Winter Handicap. At Clowne, James Mumford led the club home in 1-20-56, while Suzanne McGill produced another excellent run to finish first in the ladies over45 category. There were further age-group podiums for Ian Neville, who placed second in the men’s over60, and Robert Davies, who took third in the same category, with Jade Crosby third senior woman and Jill Scrivens third in the ladies over55. The race also brought major personal breakthroughs for several runners, including a huge improvement from Amelia Cottam, who cut around fifteen minutes from her previous best with 1-58, and further PB progress from Chris Baldwin and Rory O’Sullivan. Rachael Mayston also managed to achieve a club record in the ladies over55 category in 1-34-55.

Nichola McNally impressed at the Wilmslow Festive 10K, running 42-35 to take third in the ladies over55 category on a fast and competitive course.

At the Padfield fell race, George Parr continued his excellent autumn form by finishing second overall and first in the men’s under23 category, while Damian Kilpin claimed third place in the men’s over40 and Ray Brown topped the over80s. Penistone were also represented at the Hathersage Night Race, with David Lovatt and Shaun Swallow tackling the challenging evening course and delivering strong performances throughout. Shaun Swallow also added a strong run at the Tadcaster 10, finishing in 1-11-14.

Race 5 of the Philip Senior Winter Handicap produced fast running across the field, with Charlotte Metcalfe taking the handicap win in 45-41 and the quickest actual times coming from Parr (27-42), Kilpin (30-29) and Ian Neville (31-42). Jade Crosby was fastest female with 32-16, ahead of Josie Smith and Emily Freeman. Alongside the handicap standings there is also a WMA championship, which uses age-grading to produce an adjusted performance time based on age and gender. In the WMA rankings, Neville continued his strong season by taking maximum points with an adjusted time of 25-45, narrowly ahead of Dawn Godley in second and Barbara Haigh in third. The top five were completed by Damian Kilpin and George Parr, both delivering excellent age-graded performances over the challenging course.

Saturday’s parkruns saw 66 Penistone seniors run at 19 venues, with Richard Heppenstall and Suzanne McGill both taking second place at Penistone and Richard Cottam finishing third. There was also a strong third place for James Fryers at Prudhoe Riverside. The strongest parkrun performances came from Dawn Broom with an exceptional 87.16%, followed by Julia Johnson (84.06%), Richard Heppenstall (81.88%), Dawn Godley (79.22%) and Ian Neville (77.96%). Mandy Mallinder celebrated her 200th parkrun at Lincoln.