REPORT BY: WILL WORBOYS

ON a quiet weekend in terms of local racing for the Ilkley Harriers, there was no rest for the prolific Gawain Moore.

Moore has rarely missed a mention in this weekly summary, featuring in regular fell races since joining the Harriers.

This weekend was the Burnsall Sports Classic Fell Race. A full-blooded mile and a half excursion up to the 1,266-foot peak of Burnsall Fell and back to the village, the race is one of the oldest fell races on record dating back to 1903.Well known for being a killer climb and just as tough the steep rocky technical descent.

Moore put in a typically strong performance to finish the race in 8th position in a time of 17:50, around two and half minutes behind the winner who was Tom Bell of Nidderdale.

Meanwhile in Merseyside on Saturday morning, the ultra-distance specialist Matthew Kennedy was beginning the extreme challenge of running the entire 130 miles of the Leeds-Liverpool canal. This was a race in which 93 athletes started the largely flat route along the iconic towpath; but the fact that just 52 of those finished demonstrated the extreme endurance skills needed for such a distance. Kennedy made the finish inside 24 hours at around 5:15am on Sunday to impressively come 3rd overall.

On the same day Harriers legend and multiple club-record holder Geoff Howard took part in the Leeds Golden Mile time trial, which took place at the running track at Leeds Beckett.

Howard was the only Ilkley athlete present and came home in a phenomenal time of 7:38, which as it turned out was the fastest recorded mile time in his age group (V80) in Britain this year so far. Despite this Howard was still not entirely satisfied, believing himself to be capable of quicker.

Away from northern England two young Ilkley speed-demons put in excellent performances at the Podium Home Nations 5K in Cardiff. Ed Hobbs and Archie Budding made the trip to South Wales and pitted themselves against some top athletes.

Budding finished 5th in his category in an excellent time of 15:18, while Hobbs made a big PB of 15:26, despite the 5K being shorter than his usual specialist distances.

At the other end of the scale in terms of terrain and also in terms of seniority, three Harriers took on their annual challenge of the epic Ilkley Skyline. Mike Williams, Andrew Smith and Nigel Illingworth bettered their time from last year but were still some way off the course record.

The epic 22-mile challenge which starts and finishes at the Hermit Pub at Burley Woodhead is a circular route along the top of Rombalds Moor, down through Addingham, then back up to Beamsley Beacon and Round Hill before a daring river crossing at the Burley stepping-stones and back to the Hermit for refreshments.

There were some brilliant performances at the Saturday morning parkruns with a succession of Harriers being first finishers. Alex Foyn defeated the hills of Cliffe Castle to finish 1st whilst Natalie Gravett-Foyn was 3rd female at the same event.

Harriers also dominated at Hockgraben in Germany where Alexander Wolfenden and Rachel Carter both came 1st in their respective gender categories. Jack Wood continued his fine form whilst being back home finishing 1st at Roberts Park and Samesh Chotai was also 1st at Skipton.