REPORT BY: WILL WORBOYS

JACK Cummings continued his superb springtime form to romp home in first place at Sunday’s Baildon Boundary Way race.

The annual event is a tough trail half marathon which takes in parts of Esholt Woods, the Leeds Liverpool canal towpath, a tough climb up through the woods of Shipley Glen, followed by a traverse of Baildon Moor before finishing at the Rugby club.

This year the course was extra challenging due to some particularly muddy areas that slowed many of the field down.

This was borne out by Cummings winning time of 1hr 24:49 being more than three minutes slower than his time when winning the same race last year. This performance was perhaps more impressive however as he was able to assert his dominance on the course and terrain by finishing nearly six minutes clear of Lee Athersmith of Wharfedale in second place.

There were 15 other Harriers who braved the mud and wind to take part in the event with Ilkley also managing to claim the team prize. Kate Archer finished fifth female and second in her category in a time of 1hr 56:03. Dan McKeown was also second in his category and seventh overall in a time of 1hr 36:26. Elsewhere in the results Emma Sheppard and Mike Baldwin both finished fifth in their respective categories. While Andrew Overend, Martin Hartley, Peter Shelley, Adam Gerrish and Owen Parker all managed to break the two-hour barrier.

On Tuesday evening at Penistone quarry near Haworth was the first of this year's ‘Bunny Run’ series. Success was had by some of the younger members of Ilkley Harriers with Alex Wolfenden finishing in third place of the three-mile fell run which signals the start of lighter evenings.

Following not far behind was Samesh Chotai in fourth. Ollie Holder, Oscar Shinn and Robert Carter followed on in 11th, 14th and 17th of the 207 who ran in total, ensuring Ilkley took the team prize.

On Saturday there was further evidence that the future of fell running in Ilkley is in good hands with up-and-coming Ilkley athlete Sam Bentham finishing a superb third at the Pendle race. Oli Murphy was only around 30 seconds behind in fifth and was also 1st in his category.

A classic short four-and-a-half-mile race on the Lancashire hill, the race includes a leg burning 1,500 feet of ascent. George Whittlestone was the other Ilkley representative also finishing comfortably among the first half of runners.

There were several other Ilkley runners dotted around the north of England tackling remote spring events; Helen Waddington competed in the Wetheral village 10-mile race. Situated on the banks of the River Eden in Cumbria. This is a two-lap race and Waddington finished third in her category and 42nd overall in an excellent time of 1hr 20:59.

Meanwhile in the North York Moors Dave Robson was 2nd V50 and finished 14th overall at the 11 mile ‘Blakey Blitz fell race’. Starting at the Lion Inn near the Rosedale Valley and including 3 big climbs totalling around 2,500 feet this was a superb performance particularly taking into account the exposed route and Sunday’s strong winds.

Two more Harriers made the journey to South Yorkshire but stuck to the roads, taking part in the Sheffield Half Marathon. Lucy Lowe finished almost dead on two hours after taking it steady due to her upcoming attempt at the London Marathon looming on the horizon. Jonathan Nelson also finished just outside the two-hour mark for the large city event.

While all this was going on two Ilkley endurance specialists were tackling the ‘Northern Traverse’. An incredibly challenging multi-day event that crosses the entire country in a ‘coast to coast’. The event started at St Bees on the Cumbrian coast on Saturday morning. The route takes in three national parks: the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire Moors. The race finishes at Robin Hood's Bay in East Yorkshire and is 180 miles in total.

Petra Bijsterveld managed an amazing 116 miles before sadly having to retire near Richmond due to back pain. She managed this in 45 hours which is a stunning achievement in itself and was well up in the field at that point. Andrew Merrick had also unfortunately retired after getting to 21 hours. As well as the hilly terrain the competitors had also been up against ‘Storm Kathleen’ and reported battling some particularly hideous conditions and both competitors should be proud of enduring as much as they did!

In more manageable surroundings the nations’ parkruns attracted a good number of Harriers as always. Ilkley runners dominated at Lister Park with Mark Hall being second finisher, Nick Kealey third and Beth Massey first female. At Skipton Samesh Chotai was second and Robert Cunningham fourth. At Fountains Abbey Jaysson Sawyer continued his upward curve posting an impressive time of 18.29 and finishing 10th with Jonathan Turner close behind in 12th. Stephen Coy was fourth at Woolaton Hall. Finally, Geoff Howard again topped the age grading score with over 83% at Clitheroe Castle.