A brilliant result in what must be our best to date showing at the Fell intercounties held in Rossendale on June 9th. here are a few photos of the brilliant runners and Hayley – the Junior Team managers report.
more great shots available at woodentops photography
Race report
A huge thank you to the parents and an enormous cheer to the nine young athletes who represented Devon at the UK Junior Fell Running Championships in Rossendale on Sunday 9th June.
Getting there..
Many travelled straight from the Exeter Arena Track where they were racing in the Devon Schools Championships, up north to near Manchester where we met at well-known hotel chain with an elitist name for our pre-race dinner. The camaraderie was immense from the very start of organising this team, with many messages offering lifts, kit , room shares etc .so it was great to finally meet the parents and share a drink.
The next day we travelled another 40 minutes further north in a convoy of Devon cars and arrived in Rossendale to be greeted by a cold wind and a quite a bit of rain. Why did we leave sunny Devon behind ?
Tough course
After walking the course and drying out a bit the U15s warmed up, the rain stopped, kit was checked and they were under starters orders. Boys and girls ran together – it was a brutal up and back course. A sharp 180m incline over the first km then a slight reprieve for 500m then another 500m incline up to the trig point at Cowpe Lowe (440m) only to turn around and head back down the incredibly fast decent to the finish. Devon was well represented.
U15 Girls Great team
The U15 girls Devon’s team included Elsie Goodspeed, Scarlett Muscott and Grace Gokhale. They put up a brave battle and finished 18th, 31st and 33rd out of over 50 female runners making then 6th team.
U15 Boys – the national champions!
Leo Dallmeier Cottle and Tim Falle formed our U15 boys team. Leo looked a bit bemused as after 300m he was right up at the front. He continued this form up the first super steep hill and onto the second hill where he turned at the trig point in 2nd place. Despite this being his second ever fell run Leo managed to hold his position down the v slippery treacherous decent and crossed the line in a superb second pace. Tim was on his heels and battled in for to cross the line in 4th place. However, shortly after the race ended it was announced that the winner was disqualified for not carrying all of the mandatory kit for the whole race – it was later confirmed he had passed kit to a spectator on the way up and collected it on his return. A rookie error for an experienced fellow runner which cost him his victory. This promoted the Devon boys into first place and third place and the maths isn’t hard – they also won the team prize. DEVON were FIRST and THIRD U15 BOYS and DEVON WON the U15 BOYS TEAM PRIZE! What an amazing achievement from two young fell runners in their first big fell running championships.
U17 Boys Promise
Our U17 Boys did not disappoint either – their race involved the initial 180m climb over 1k followed by an undulating trail for about 2k then a brutal climb to the cross on Scout Moor – 100m ascent over a distance of 500m. Talk about dead legs at the top ! It was then straight back down , along the trail and then down again to the finish. Although the rain had now stopped the down hill sections were pretty tricky underfoot! Luke Hayes finished a superb 7th, Theo Glew (in his first fell run this season ) was 12th and Aiden Spinney (who did the whole event hard core by camping the night before while we all stayed in a hotel ) was 38th. Great running which meant Devon U17 boys were 5th team. All three runners have another year in this age group so we hope we can build on these results next year.
U19 solo runner
Finally, Luke Stannus was our only U19 Devon. His 8.5 km course included was a combination of both U15 and U17 routes so it included all three of the hills. In a highly competitive race, and nursing a foot injury, Luke finished superbly to take 12th place, especially as he still has another year in this age group.
Managers thoughts..
It was a truly wonderful weekend. I’m so proud of our young runners who have helped put Devon the fell running map. It was great to hear other spectators commenting – who is that team in Blue – as our runners took on the course and challenged the best fell runners in the UK.
By all accounts it was a particularly tough course even for fell runners – so we can certainly hold our heads high and look forward to the next one. Hopefully we can get a few along to English Schools fell running championships at the end of the summer and keep on building on the successes of this weekend. But for now let’s congratulate our runners (and parents for getting them their) and keep on encouraging and supporting our juniors so we help them develop into the top fell runners I know they have the potential to become. It was an honour to be part of the weekend. Thank you Hayley Ratcliff
SWFellrunners says..
An amazing result. Firstly congrats to the runners for the effort in the race and the determination to train and give up a weekend to represent Devon. I would like to think that the series of races we have created for juniors, 8- races now, is helping build our community of hill runners. Next the parents and families – its a huge commitment not just in time but also in money – you are superb. Lastly Hayley the awesome team manager well done. lots more to be seen form these Devon runners – i wonder if you can spot them in the next series races?
See you on the hills
Richard , Tim and Colin
Fantastic!