Ryan Snee Claims 6th in Bolton Ironman
This weekend saw the Ironman 70.3 triathlon make a reappearance on the streets of Bolton and Ryan Snee finished in a splendid 6th position in the main event with a time of 4:12:14. Martyn Pollitt just missed sub-6 hours with 6:00:12, George Butler did the event in 6:33:23 and Isaline Kneale finished in 7:31:13. Helen MacDonald took part in the victorious Team St. Mary’s outfit that won the relay version and did a half-marathon personal best at the same time in the running leg, running 1:44:18 as her team finished in 5:08:16. Others took part in shorter races. Maria Lowe and Sean McMyler powered around the half-marathon event, Lowe in 1:38:48 and McMyler just under a minute behind in 1:39:44, whilst Marcus Taylor flew around the 10K Night Run in 39:07.
The local moorland saw a feature of the Bolton racing calendar with the Leo Pollard Fell Race, a 10K race starting and finishing in Rivington with over 400 metres of ascent. Luke Foley came second in an excellent 37:14, Matt Fawthrop just missed the 40-minute mark in 40:04, Dan Gilbert was second V45 in 41:19, Danny Hope was third V45 in 43:21 and Adam MacDonald came second V40 a second behind Hope. Rob Seddon and Nick Kelly both got home just under 45 minutes, Sandra Kelly was first F55 in after 51:57 and Doug Fleming followed her in nine seconds later to be first V65. Mark Seddon came back before the hour had passed in 57:10 and Tony Varley ran round in 1:47:23.
Juniors saw championship action at the Northern U13/U15/U17 Championships in Wavertree, Liverpool. Oscar Burke came 4th in the U15s 100m final with a personal best time of 11.98 seconds, then went one step further in the 200m by clocking 3rd place in another PB of 24.75. Joel Ige completed in the U17s 200m but despite a fine 23.18 missed out on the final by 1/100th of a second. He did better in the U17s 100m, also taking third position in 11.34. Chidera Ajet took a third bronze medal for Horwich with a fine 5.99 metres in the long jump in difficult, windy conditions, whilst Abi Ajet also clocked up a personal best with 14.19 in the U15s 100 metres, just beaten by teammate Lily Mort in 14.12 as the juniors clocked up three third places and three personal bests.
The various parkruns saw a rather scattered crowd. Luke Massey was second at Bolton in a rapid 19:48, Gordon Stone just broke the 30-minute mark for the first time in 15 months at Worsley Woods with 29:54. Suzanne Budgett went to Penrith and got around in 25:34 whilst the Middletons went to Liverpool to take in Croxteth Hall with Jason getting a time of 22:57 and Janet getting 31:00 exactly. Richard O’Reilly and Paul Murray headed to Blackburn for the Witton parkrun, with O’Reilly coming third in 22:10 and Murray clocking 41:58. Mary White and Gillian Smith took in Haigh’s hilly route with White coming home in 28:39 and Smith doing 36:23. David Crawford took on Crewe, getting back in 35:06. Isaac Parker went to the grass-covered course of Coldham’s Common in Cambridge and came eighth in 19:27, Andrew Storey and Steve Jackson took on Peel’s mixed course and ran 27:40 and 32:12 respectively, Chris Charnley went to Worden, running 20:53 and the fastest parkrun of the weekend went to evergreen Rob Jackson, who decided Alexandra parkrun in Moss Side was worth a run instead of Peel, coming back home in a rapid 18:27.