Athletics: Tough nut just no match for Wrench
ANDREW Wrench is celebrating after winning the Trawden seven-mile multi-terrain race on Sunday.
The race, which was the latest counter towards Todmorden Harriers' road championship, attracted a good turnout of 14 Harriers in the hot humid cloudy conditions.
Starting from Trawden recreation ground, the route took runners down to Laneshawbridge before a long climb up the old herders' road in the direction of Haworth. After four miles on the road, they turned off onto a stony farm track descending into Wycoller. A brief riverside section then led to final climb on the road, before the dash across the recreation ground field to the finish.
Wrench ran a well controlled run from the front and crossed the line comfortably ahead of the next runner. Second Harrier to finish was Phil Cook, with Andrew Bibby hot on his heels.
Keighley & Craven's Amy Green was first female, with Sarah Glyde the first Todmorden lady to finish as - fifth female overall. Mel Blackhurst and Elise Milnes were next as Todmorden tussled with Clayton le Moors for first ladies team.
l In similarly hot conditions, three Harriers were in Nice for the Ironman France Triathlon on Sunday. A 3800m sea swim was followed by a 180km cycle, and finished off with a full marathon on a four-lap promenade course.
Phil Hodgson exited the swim first of the closely matched trio in a time of 1:24:54, over three minutes ahead of Emma Osenton, with John Preston a further 90 seconds back.
Emma demonstrated the value of a perfect transition as she overhauled Phil and started the cycle ride a few seconds ahead of him.
She used her strength in the middle event to open up the gap and another fast transition saw her start the marathon run 31 minutes ahead of Phil, with John Preston trailing seven minutes behind.
At the end of the first lap of the run John had started to close the gap on those ahead, and managed to overtake Phil by the end of the second lap. The tough third lap saw John and Emma slowing as Phil revived slightly.
Going into the last lap of the run Emma's lead over John had been cut to just 11 minutes, with Phil five minutes behind John.
Despite a tremendous effort from John, Emma managed to find the strength to pick her pace back up and crossed the line in a total time of 13:13:08 followed by John in 13:14:50. Phil continued to speed up right to the end, and recorded his fastest run lap to cross the line in 13:16:22.
While the three will be looking forward to a well earned rest, particularly Emma for whom it was her second Ironman event within the past month, several Harriers are looking ahead to next Sunday's Todmorden Triathlon organised by Calderdale Tri Club.
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
