South of England Fell Running Championships

Isle of Wight Sept 20^th & 21^st 2008

Brooke captures Gold & Harrier V50 team finishes well.

A small contingent of Harrier veterans kept up the tradition of Club members taking part in the South of England Fell Running Championships when they travelled across to the Isle of Wight. Since the early 1990s, Harriers have been competing and quite often coming back with individual medals from these Championships. Most recently, last year, the Club’s female athlete of the year, Jenny Moore, was overall woman Champion here.

The Championships used to be a single race in the Lake District or on the Welsh Borders, but since 1999 the Championships have been held as part of the Isle of Wight Fell running weekend. To count for the Championships the competitors have to finish three tough races over the course of the weekend. This year once again the Harriers provided an individual winner and also saw a good team performance.

The team of Nick Brooke, Pete Wright and Paul Chadwick saw the Harriers finish as 5^th Club (7^th team) from across the region, with new Club signing Nick also picking up an individual V50 Gold medal for his performances in the three races over the 2 days. Nick is seen more often in YTRR colours for whom he competes at other disciplines but for Fell Running he is signed up for the Harriers. This was Nick’s 2^nd year at the races, whilst it was Paul’s 8^th at the Series, and Pete’s 3^rd go. On behalf of the SEAA, Paul once again presented the Championship medals to the winning athletes at the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

All 3 races start and finish at Ventnor and include varying degrees of ascent. The first race held on Saturday morning was over a 3 mile course with 775 foot of climb, the St Boniface Face Fell Race. The race started at 11.00am on the Prom at Ventnor and saw the competitors climb up none stop for 1.5 miles over a mixture of road, for the first half mile, and then on to the open fell to the mast up high up above the town. Nick ran an excellent 20.13 for 20^th place behind the winning time of 17.47 and was 1^st V50 home. Paul was next in 22.28 for 38^th (5^th V50) and Pete just behind in 22.50 (49^th, 7^th V50).

The second race, that afternoon, the Ventnor Horseshoe race was over 7 miles with 1500 foot of climb and Nick finished with an excellent 62.56 for 21^st place, almost 2 minutes ahead of his main rival for the SEAA V50 Championships, Bob Pentland of Portsmouth in 23^rd place. Pete ran a solid 70.08 with Paul almost catching Pete on the run in with his 70.11 at this race.

The third and final race, the Wroxall Round held on the Sunday morning was over a half-marathon distance with 1500 foot of climb, and this time Nick did just enough to hold onto his leading position with a 20^th place 96.53 which despite being 20 seconds down on his main rival was good enough with the Championships being decided on cumulative positions. Pete again got the better of Paul with his 1.52.50 being 40 seconds quicker.

In the Southern Championship standings Nick was 18^th, overall 1^st V50, Paul was 35^th, 4^th V50, and Pete 37^th, 5^th V50. Subject to their legs recovering in time, Paul & Pete are both set to go again in the somewhat flatter South of England Road Relays on Saturday at Aldershot. Well done Nick!

(see photo in Rogues Gallery)

SEAA Male Champion Richard Philips (Serpentine Running Club)

SEAA Female Champion Miriam Valencia (London Frontrunners)