Helpful Hailsham Harriers hailed – Hastings athletes shine on track and elsewhere

HAILSHAM HARRIERS

Hailsham Harriers carried out a Seaford Beach Parkrun takeover at the weekend where they filled 26 vital volunteer roles along with 17 pacer roles.

Parkrun is a free, 5K distance, every Saturday at 9am, held at more than 2,000 locations in 22 countries across six continents where everyone is welcome to walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate.

Without volunteers these events cannot go ahead. As Seaford is one of the Hailsham’s favourite parkrun locations, Darren Gillett, Harriers club treasurer, led the organisation for the black and red team takeover, together with one of Seaford Parkrun’s awesome core race directors, Tom Roper.

Seaford Parkrun is a flat, out and back route, along Seaford promenade. It is always, relaxed, welcoming, full of encouragement and with stunning views.

Many Harriers volunteered as pacers on Saturday for the 269 park runners, helping others to achieve personal running times from sub 21 minutes through to sub 35 minutes. Other volunteer roles that were filled included marshalling, barcode scanning, tail walking and race reporting.

A few Harriers joined in the roles of token sorting, funnel manager and course checking to save their racing legs for the Bewl 15 mile race the following day.

Voted as one of the UK’s best races and organised by Wadhurst Runners in conjunction with the Nice Work Events team, a record turnout of 567 runners faced the challenging, multi-terrain course around Bewl Water Reservoir, a race that also forms part of the Sussex Grand Prix league whereby local clubs compete against each other, over a series of 12 races, to win team and individual age awards.

The 15 mile route presents a little of everything, from tree routes to gravel, hills to country lanes, sweeping meadows and steep descents, but for many reasons people love it as it is well organised, set in a stunning location, runners receive a medal, t-shirt, free cake and beer at the end, what’s not to love?!

Hailsham had another record team turnout compared to previous years, with 21 Harriers taking part. First over the line in a mighty impressive performance saw Adam Davies finish in 1:48:20, with men’s captain Carl Barton also having one of his best performances in 1:52:05.

Three Harriers; Lianne Leakey, Los Burrett and Graham Woolley stuck together in an aim to break the sub 2 hour barrier, crossing the line with new personal bests of 1:57:30. Sam Unwin, running the race for the first time stormed over the line in 2:02:32 with ladies captain Helen O’Sullivan running a new personal best in 2:04:59. Mark Bassett finished in 2:09:03, Robin Warwick gained a new personal best in 2:10:16, Simon Haddon 2:15:08, Gary Smith 2:15:43 and Chris Little also running a new personal best in 2:21:47. Tracy Erridge produced a strong run to finish in 2:27:40 closely followed by Leeland Pavey 2:31:11, Katy Reed 2:39:53, Steph Bassett 2:41:03, Michelle Hollands 2:44:24, Hannah Deubert-Chapman 2:51:19, Sam Neame 3:01:13, Ros Thomson 3:02:42 and Darren Gillett 3:41:23.

Lianne Leakey placed first place in her age category and for many Harriers this was their first attempt at this distance under race conditions.

Thanks go to the wonderful Wadhurst Runners for organising a fabulous race, with great cake, a wonderful atmosphere and cooler weather than in previous years. The next race in the Sussex Grand Prix is the Brighton Phoenix 10K, to be held on Wednesday 12th July at 7:30pm.

HY RUNNERS

It was all about the HY Runners kids last weekend as they travelled to the K2 in Crawley for the U13 County Championships and the U11 Quad Kids Championships.

The star performance of the day came from U13 Isabella Buchanan who ran a championship best performance in the 1500m, smashing the 23-year-old county record by five seconds. Isabella led from the gun and crossed the line in an incredible 4:42.72.