Penistone Footpath Runners
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Strong turnout at Hartcliff Hill race

Our runners were out in force across another busy week of racing, with the Ian Charlesworth Hartcliff Hill Race providing the highlight. The race was held in memory of Ian Charlesworth, a long-standing member and coach at the club who sadly died last year and is greatly missed. George Parr led the club home with an excellent fourth place finish in 29-53, while Ashley Firth was seventh in 31-13 and James Mumford tenth in 32-10. There was impressive strength in depth throughout the field, with John Halstead, Flynn Rogers and Matt Robinson all finishing well inside the top 30. The women’s team produced a particularly strong showing, led by Hannah Shaw, who was first Penistone female, second female overall and first senior female in 35-34. Josie Smith and Emily Duckett also ran well, with Josie taking first place in the over40 category. In the veteran categories, Ian Neville was first over60, Julia Johnson was first over60 female, Bernice Nixon was first over70 female, Ray Brown first over75 male and Barbara Haigh first over75, while Matt Robinson added to the club’s success with first place in the over55 category.

The club was also well represented at the third fixture of the South Yorkshire Road League at Worsborough. Rob Lees led the club home in 67th place in 32-47, followed by Jonathan Bentley in 74th and Lee Storey in 79th. Ian Neville continued his strong week to finish 98th overall and first over60 in 34-06. Further strong runs came from Shaun Swallow, Daniel Limb and Julian Williams, while Jill Scrivens, Olivia Clough, Kim Rogers, Barbara Haigh and Sarah Clough added to a solid club turnout. Barbara Haigh also topped the over75 category.

At the Furty Furlong, a short but tough off-road race at Mapplewell, Ian Neville led the club home in 14th place in 26-51, closely followed by Andrew Pearson in 15th in 27-13 and Phil Hinchliffe in 18th in 27-52. Shaun Swallow, Chris Baldwin and Robin Clough also ran strongly on the testing course, with Alan Knox (first over70 male), Callum Page and Steve Dommett completing the Penistone line-up.

Graihagh Turner represented the club at the national trials, held as selection races for the 2026 European Off-Road Running Championships in Slovenia next month. She finished eighth in the uphill-only race at Keswick before producing an excellent run to finish fifth in the up-and-down trial at Sedbergh, narrowly missing out on third place by just five seconds. Her descending was particularly impressive, with the fastest downhill split of the race.

Also on the fells, at The Cake Race in Oldham, Jemma Williams impressed with a strong run to finish 106th overall in 1-38-48 and third in the over40 category. Jill Scrivens also ran well, finishing 142nd in 1-48-30 and sixth over55, while Harriet Drouin completed the challenging fell course in 1-57-22.

At the RunGreno Trail Race, Richard Cottam produced one of the standout performances of the weekend, finishing second overall in 45-35 and first in the men’s over40 category. Daniel Rushforth also ran strongly to place eighth overall and third over40 in 52-02. Ian Neville added another category win, taking first over60 in 55-31. Sara Wolstenholme and Angie Rollinson completed the Penistone contingent on a wet and challenging course.

Saturday’s parkruns saw 74 Penistone runners compete across 25 venues. At Penistone, Richard Heppenstall produced the standout performance, finishing second overall in a personal best 17-26 and recording the weekend’s highest age grade of 86.71%. Martin Ball was seventh in 18-52, while Richard Cottam placed eighth and second over40 in 19-01. Ryan Duckett, Greg Slack and Alex Best all recorded personal bests, and Edward Holley was first junior. At Barnsley, Jade Crosby ran strongly to finish first female in 20-30, while Alex Crosby was 15th in 21-20 and third in his category. Ian Neville, Lisa Hinchliffe and Sue Hall all secured age category wins. The top five age-graded performances were Richard Heppenstall (86.71%), Martin Ball (80.74%), Dawn Godley (78.07%), Ryan Duckett (77.36%) and Damian Kilpin (75.24%).