It was the sound of pounding feet that replaced the roar of the engine last weekend as 175 athletes of all ages and abilities took part in a new race introduced by Paul Cook and hosted by Darlington Harriers. Hopefully this 5k road race will become a regular addition to the ever popular Darlington Pitstop, held here at Croft Circuit every year.
The 5k run consisted of one and a half laps of the famous tarmac, and the awful weather conditions didn’t stop four of our junior Harriers turning out to give it their all. There would have been more but a lot were taking part in a final training session before the following week’s North East XC Championships.
All the juniors were classed as Under 17’s for today’s event, but in reality we had three Under 13’s and one Under 15, all running together alongside the seniors. The first of our juniors to take the chequered flag was U13, Josh Scott. He had an absolutely cracking run today and was the 2nd junior to finish (just a few seconds behind ex. Harrier Joe Reeve – now R&Z.)
From the 175 taking part, Josh finished an amazing 41st overall, putting plenty of adults to shame, in an excellent time of 20:23. Nice one Josh, well done! Next up, and the 3rd junior to cross the line, another one of our U13 regulars, Ashton Harrison. An impressive run from Ashton, once again showing the adults how it’s done, he finished a fantastic 58th place overall, and just beat his Dad in the process! A cracking time too of 21:22; that’s the way, Ashton, keep up the good work!
The 4th junior to finish was another blue and white vest, U15 Kyle Atkins. Kyle is a keen endurance runner, sticking mainly to park runs and road races, so this event was right up his street! He had a tremendous run finishing 87th overall in an excellent time of 23:35. Great effort, Kyle, well done. And finally, a new name to us here at the Junior Report, Jack Brown. Jack has been training with the U13 junior group at DHAC for a while now, but I’m lead to believe that this was his first time competing for the club (please correct us if otherwise ☺) Either way, it was a fantastic effort with Jack being the 5th junior across the line, 120th overall.
An excellent time too of 27:20. Great run, Jack, well done!