17/10/04: Dark Peak: Double National Fell Relay Champions!
A
fantastic day in the Peaks yesterday saw Dark Peak Fell Runners not only hold
on to the Women's title they won last year but also win the Men's and finish
3rd in the Ve
teran
class at the FRA relays. The event was organised by Pennine and started from
Hayfield with each of the 4 legs running up to Kinder. Orienteers were a major
part of the team and we were hoping for low cloud so that everyone else might
get lost! However it was beautiful sunshine - and we still won. Thanks must
go to all the Sheffield crowd who were out to cheer us on at the race (and to
make sure we celebrated properly last night!).
ShUOC's
Andrew Middleditch ran an excellent 1st leg to give the men just the start they
needed and SYO pair Phil Winskill and Oli Johnson were able to turn this into
3rd place after leg 2. The navigation leg saw Mark Hayman and Al Ward overtake
the leaders to give Tim Austin (made famous by the book 'Feet in the Clouds')
a 2 minute lead which he maintained on last leg for a famous victory.
Meanwhile the women started well and good performances by Philippa,
Lesley and Lynn saw them start the navigation leg in 5th place. Helen Winskill
and Jenny Whitehead then ran through the field, with a fastest time by 15 minutes
for the leg, to finish in the lead and hand over to Karen Davison (nee Dalton)
just before the mini-mass-start for final leg! Karen had a flyer to avoid getting
overtaken by anyone in the mass start (men included!) and extend the winning
margin to 20 minutes.
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