Saturday 18th January saw the annual running of the Pudsey & Bramley Juniors Handicap Race. Nearly every Junior had improved their times and were jostling for places on the handicap table when running the qualifying course at training. The final qualifying times had set up some intriguing battles on race day, with some highly anticipated clashes between siblings and friends that would ensure a competitive race day.
On the day itself a record 41 Juniors lined up to take their respective places on the staggered starting line. Whilst the weather on the morning was perfect, the heavy rain over the previous days & weeks ensured that the course was challenging & very muddy, just the way we like it at P&B!!
Daniel Hawkins was first over the start line with Stephen Phillips last to set off & faced with the greatest time margin to pull back. Despite the conditions there were some amazing efforts put in by all the Juniors (& Pups). The first to appear up the final hill was Molly Enever, she reached the final corner and managed to hold on down the finishing straight to claim first place. Second over the line was Jess Myers, who despite being new to P&B looks a really promising prospect for the future & finishing off the podium was Dylan Horne.
The Handicap Race was timed for the first time this year which allowed us to see exactly who covered the 1.5 mile course the quickest. The fastest time accolade went to Thomas Martin who completed the testing course in a hugely impressive 11m 7s. A shout out also to Stephen Phillips who was last to set off and was the only other Junior to post a sub 12 minute time and also Emily Kite for fastest female time.
There were too many great performances to mention everyone, but all the Juniors should be justly proud of their performance, which is a direct result of the efforts they have put into their training over the previous year, we cannot wait to see how you improve over 2020.
Finally we would like to thank all the parents who helped to marshal the race & encouraged all the runners on their way round, it was greatly appreciated & we couldn’t stage the race without you.
