Buxton AC’s Jake Fearn tussled with the top end of a quality field at last week’s Rainow 5 Mile Fell Race before successfully pulling away from three other contenders for first place, and finished a clear 13 seconds ahead of the next runner in a fine time of 33.18. The race has a fast start and it’s anyone’s for the first few miles, before turning sharply – and precipitously – up White Nancy, the folly built in 1817 to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo. Fearn was first of fifteen Buxton AC runners to take part. First Female Vet 50 and first Buxton female home was Jo Bednall, 75th overall, in a time of 45.22.
At the Cressbrook Crawl Fell Race on Saturday, over a distance of six and a half miles with almost 1,200 feet of ascent, Fearn once again led the Buxton AC contingent home in a time of 48.20 and in 6th place, followed by Ian Ridgeway in 25th, Kate Butler in 116th and Angela Bent in 122nd.
The popular Pavilion Gardens 5K took place in perfect conditions at the weekend and it was very much a Matlock AC –v- Buxton AC affair, with 18 Matlock runners to Buxton’s 15, from the entire field of 73 runners. Visiting the area was the outright winner of the race, Hailemariam Abraham of East Cheshire Harriers, in a time of 18.20, while Sophie Hopkinson of Matlock AC was first female home in 22.03. Buxton AC runners performed strongly, with Rob Lloyd in second place overall in 18:32, and returning to racing was Jenny Johnson, in 25.07. First Male Vet 55 was Pete Bailey in 22.26, Alan Talbot First Male Vet 65 in 22.47 and Tony Hulme First Male Vet 70 in 24.17.
Jon Sewell represented the Club at the Bakewell Parkrun, coming a close 5 seconds off his personal best at the event, 5th overall from 144 runners, in 19.19 and first Male Vet 45.
Buxton AC athletes don’t just excel at running and several Club Members demonstrated a wide variety of abilities at Track & Field at the Derbyshire Championships, held in conjunction with Nottinghamshire Athletics at the weekend. Elizabeth Nocton not only won a grand total of five medals (gold & silver) across Track, Field & Relays, but also set a championship record in the Masters Hammer event. Richard Goff won gold at the Masters 400 metres and silver at the 1500 metres race, while Pete Bailey claimed silver at the Masters High Jump and bronze in the Masters 3000 metres race.