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Heppenstall leads charge at Sheffield Half
Our runners produced an outstanding set of performances at the Run For All Sheffield Half Marathon, with Richard Heppenstall leading the way with a superb 1-20-10 to finish 55th overall and secure second place in the men’s over50 category. Ashley Firth followed with a strong 1-24-50, while Martin Ball continued his consistent form with 1-25-42 to place eighth in the men’s over50 category. Jade Crosby led the Penistone women with an excellent 1-31-04, finishing 24th female overall on the testing, undulating course. There was further depth from Gareth Irvine (1-38-10), while Michael Nicholson ran 1-42-31 in the men’s over50 category. Emily Duckett impressed with 1-45-53, with Rachael Winterbottom (1-49-43), Pete Beever (1-57-41) and Seuranie Johnstone (2-10-03) completing the Penistone line-up in a strong club turnout.
Earlier in the week, Penistone runners produced some sharp performances at the DonFaster 5K in Doncaster, which incorporated the YVAA 5K Championship. Nichola McNally led the way with an excellent 20-39 to finish 100th overall and secure first place in the ladies over55 category, while Gareth Irvine also dipped under 20 minutes with 19-52.
On the fells, Jill Scrivens and Mandy Mallinder took on the Alan Kirk Lads Leap Memorial fell race in cold, wet and windy conditions. Jill produced a strong run to finish 41st overall in 1-33-57, securing first place in the ladies over55 category, while Mandy completed the course in 1-55-10. At the Commondale Clart fell race, Damian Kilpin recorded an excellent performance to finish 14th overall in 42-54, taking second place in the men’s over45 category.
Further afield, Stefan Butler-Gillen represented the club at the Berlin Half Marathon, finishing in 2-09-21, while at the Vale of York 10 Mile Shaun Swallow ran 1-13-22 to place seventh in the men’s over55 category.
Saturday’s parkruns saw 64 Penistone Footpath Runners in action across 22 venues, with standout performances across the country. Richard Heppenstall took first place at Penistone, while Oliver France also secured an impressive overall victory at Penrith with a personal best 18-25. There were second place finishes for Hannah Shaw at Penistone, Flynn Rogers at Hillsborough with a superb 17-06, and Joe Mann at Aviemore, while James Fryers claimed third place at Eglinton. Milestones were also to the fore, with Hannah Shaw completing her 100th parkrun and Shaun Braddock his 50th, both at Penistone, while Martyn Goodwin reached his 300th parkrun at Barnsley. Category winners included Ian Neville (men’s over60), Alan Knox (men’s over70) and Sue Hall (ladies over65) at Barnsley, while at Penistone Shaun Braddock (men’s over60), Heather Simpson (ladies over50), Jen Holley (ladies over40), Barbara Haigh (ladies over75) and Danny Batty (men’s over80) all topped their respective age groups. Elsewhere, Rob Lees (men’s over45) was first at Bowling Park, Matt Coldwell (men’s over50) at Thonock Lane Farm, Dawn Godley (ladies over65) at Fell Foot, Jill Scrivens (ladies over55) at Scunthorpe and Dan Rushforth (men’s over40) at Mole Valley. The highest age-graded performances of the weekend came from Barbara Haigh (83.09%), Dawn Godley (81.25%), Flynn Rogers (80.12%), Dawn Broom (78.99%) and Richard Heppenstall (77.26%).