Ben Light was on fire this weekend.
Not only was he first in Saturday’s Pavilion Gardens 5K – and in a personal best time of 17 mins 5 secs on the course to boot – but he was first Buxton runner home at the Wythenshawe cross country with a 22nd placing from a field of nearly 450 runners, in a remarkable 35.07 over the 9.7K distance – and just five hours later on the same day. The phrase ‘on form’ doesn’t even begin to do him justice, a dazzling performance.
Some 66 brave souls ventured out in the wind and rain on Saturday morning to take part in the Gardens 5K, and 20 of them were youngsters aged from just 2 to 12 who ran either one or two laps of the 3 lap course, so more promising talent coming up through the award-winning Club. From the first 10 finishers in the main race, seven were Buxton AC athletes. Buxton’s Sam Willis was first female home in a superb 10th place overall, and in a personal best for the distance in 22.05. Janet Taylor was second female home, and first Vet 50 in 23.49, 16th overall. Jason Burgess was 2nd overall, and 1st Vet 40, while Jon Batt of High Peak Tri was 6th overall and 1st Vet 55, Alick Brown 13th overall and 1st Vet 60, while Buxton’s own record-breaking Alan Talbot was 1st Vet 65, 14th overall. Jonty Brown at the tender age of 9 was 12th overall in an astonishing time of 22.15, and 1st Junior Male home.
The first of the Manchester Cross Country League races took place around the beautiful Wythenshawe Park on Saturday afternoon, and Buxton sent 29 senior athletes to represent their Club. As reported above, Ben Light was first runner home, but equally noteworthy were two young lads who for the first time ran in the Senior Men’s race as Under 20s with fantastic placings. Jacob Winfield was 4th in the Under 20s, and Jacob Miller was 8th, a great start to the Manchester league season. In total, some 17 Buxton men took part, whilst in the female race, Amy Clark was first home out of 12 for the Club in a brilliant 10th place from a field of almost 300 runners, proof of her escalating form. Over the 7.8k course, Debbie Hope was 2nd home for the team in 50th place overall, Tania Wilson 3rd and 72nd overall, and completing the team Jo Cudahy in 133rd. Team standings are pretty positive – the Senior Men are 11th and 33rd teams out of 57, whilst the Senior Male Vets are 17th and 46th teams out of 52. The Senior Ladies’ teams are 14th, 50th and 62nd from a total of 63 teams, and the Senior Female Vets teams are 10th, 37th and 54th from 59 teams.
Over 14,000 entrants signed up for the popular Manchester Half Marathon, six Buxton AC runners took on the challenge, returning excellent times , five of them well under the two hour mark despite the very damp weather. Of particular note is Katie Rolfe’s time of 1.40.40, knocking a huge 9 minutes from her previous best time. Mark Halsey finished in 1.44.55, Ruth Gowers 1.50.58, Louise Hallows 1.52.41 and Caroline Newton-Phillips 1.54.11, both the latter ladies achieving PBs. Tracy Gregory achieved a time of 2.09.06, four minutes faster than her previous time at the event.
On the fells, at the local Windgather 13.5 mile “Tour of the Goyt” fell race out of Burbage Institute, eight Buxton runners took part. Pride of place goes to Jake Fearn who, from a field of 130 runners, was 3rd finisher in a brilliant time of 1.44.39. Next home was Rob White in 14th place (1.51.39), Dan Latham 28th (1.57.25), Nigel Jeff 34th (2.00.54), Nick Jones 37th (2.03.06), Richard Bouglas 38th (2.03.44), Martin Ward 50th (2.07.26) and Pete Bailey 112th (2.37.16). Latham, Bouglas and Bailey’s times were all the more impressive given they had all taken part in the cross country the day before.