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Success at Barnsley Boundary Relay
The club enjoyed a memorable day at the Barnsley Boundary Relay, winning the open race and claiming a clean sweep of the men’s veteran team titles. Organised by us in conjunction with Barnsley Rockley Rotary Club, the event follows the Barnsley Boundary Long Distance Path around the edge of the borough, covering around 72 miles with 7,350ft of ascent over ten legs on roads, tracks and footpaths. Penistone Men finished first overall in 8-44-36, more than seventeen minutes clear of Denby Dale Men in second place. Sean Pitt set the tone by finishing second on the opening leg before Richard Heppenstall, Marc Robertson, Richard Cottam, Hugh Mackie and Flynn Rogers all posted the fastest times on their respective legs. Ash Howlett was second on leg five, Alex Crosby fourth on leg four, and Oliver Found completed the final leg back to Cannon Hall to seal an excellent team victory. There was strength in depth across the club, with Penistone Men over50 finishing third overall and first in their category in 9-41-34. Penistone Men over40 were sixth overall and first over40 in 10-11-15, while Penistone Men over60 completed the veteran team sweep by finishing eighth overall and first over60 in 10-26-37. The ladies open team also ran strongly, finishing second female team in 10-55-40, with Jade Crosby third overall and first female on leg five, Josie Smith sixth overall on leg seven and Jemma Williams eighth overall on leg eight. Penistone Ladies over40 were second in the women’s over40 category, while the mixed team also completed the demanding route. Conditions were testing in places, with runners reporting wet ground, boggy moorland and strong winds on the higher sections around Langsett and Winscar.
Away from the relay, Jade Crosby produced one of the standout individual performances of the week at the York Even Splits 5K, running a personal best of 19-26 and breaking her own senior women’s club record. Alex Crosby also ran strongly, clocking a personal best of 19-41.
Graihagh Turner continued her outstanding season on the track, winning the senior girls’ 1500m at the South Yorkshire Schools Track and Field Championships in 4-49.3. The victory earned her selection for the English Schools Championships despite windy conditions making fast times difficult for the middle-distance runners. Graihagh was also in fell-running action at the Edale Junior FRA Championships, which doubled as round four of the Fell Runners Association Junior Championship and the Junior Inter Counties Championship. Representing Yorkshire, she finished fifth individually and helped the county to team gold.
Dawn Broom proudly represented Wales at the Tonypandy Track Classic in South Wales, competing in the Masters Women International 3000m. She finished eighth overall in 13-29.96 and took third place in the women’s over60 category. Amanda Field completed her first marathon at the Windermere Marathon, finishing in a chip time of 4-44-43 and placing 12th in the women’s over45 category. Tom Fryers produced another strong coastal run at the Filey Beach 10K, finishing third overall in 37-55, while Damian Kilpin was 14th at the Ripley 10K in 39-32 and eighth in the men’s over40 category.
On the fells, Steve Sanders enjoyed success at the Mike Mallen Memorial Round Latrigg fell race, finishing 27th out of 90 runners in 39-36 and taking first place in the men’s over50 category over the five-mile course with 787ft of climb. Julia Johnson flew the Penistone flag abroad, finishing second in a tough, hilly and extremely hot trail race in the Limousin region of France.
Penistone juniors were also in action at Jack and Paul’s Charity Run, where Flynn Rogers was first boy, Grace Revitt first girl, Heidi Morley second in her age category and Harry Revitt third in his age category. There were also third places for Matilda Cottam in the under11 girls and Thom Cottam in the under7 boys.
On the day when the millionth parkrun took place, the Barnsley Boundary Relay meant a lower than usual turnout for the club, but 34 Penistone seniors still ran across 15 venues. The Fryers brothers produced the standout parkrun performance, taking the first two places at Woodlands, where James finished first in 16-23 and Tom was second in 17-23. Damian Kilpin was fifth and first over45 at Glossop, Dawn Godley was first over65 at Nobles, John Broom was second over55 at Cardiff, and Dave and Ann Lindop both placed second over65 at Paarl in South Africa. At Barnsley, Lee Hopkins, Heather Simpson, Sue Hall and Keith Gordon all won their age categories, while Danny Batty was first over80 at Penistone. The top age-graded performances came from James Fryers (78.74%), Dawn Godley (77.16%), John Broom (75.06%), Sue Hall (74.79%) and Tom Fryers (74.21%).