Yorkshire 2009

Senior Championships

The Senior Yorkshire Championships were held at the Great Whernside race on Saturday 31st October 2009: sponsored by The Wharfedale Clinic, tel. 01943 850950

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Senior Ladies	Emma Clayton, Scunthorpe	Lisa Lacon, Holmfirth	Tracey Greenway, Ilkley
Ladies' Team	Wharfedale Harriers: Tamara Hird, Kath Bradley, Kirsty Hall
Senior Men	John Heneghan, P&B	Karl Gray, Calder Valley	Graham Pearce, P&B
Men's Team	Calder Valley: Karl Gray, Ben Mounsey, Gavin Mulholland
Ladies U23	Emma Clayton, Scunthorpe
Men U23	Duncan Burtwhistle, Harrogate H	Jack Smith, Wharfedale	Matthew Athersmith, U/A

Yorkshire's number one athlete John Heneghan of Pudsey & Bramley ran away from the 167 strong field and into the record books, by becoming the only athlete to win the fell championship as well as the Cross Country title, which he won at Skipton in 2005. John the 'southern softie' as he is affectionately known, has served his apprenticeship by eating a copious amount of Yorkshire Pudding with lashings of onion gravy, washed down with flagons of Yorkshire bitter; and that's just for breakfast! Earlier this year in May John won the Inter County Championships at Hutton Roof and led the Yorkshire team to gold medals. Two other athletes from that gold medal winning team won Yorkshire individual silver and bronze medals, a right old battle ensued up and down the Great Whernside slopes, with Karl Gray just having the edge on Graham Pearce.
Karl who has won three bronze in 2004, 2006 and 2008, along with a silver individual medal in 2005, also led his Calder Valley team mates Ben Mounsey and Gavin Mulholland to their first ever Yorkshire team gold.
Putting the icing on the cake 21 year old Emma Clayton won the Yorkshire senior and Under 23 championships to add to her already British and English Under 23 titles. Emma is fast developing into a serious threat on the fell running scene, so much so, this year she has finished with a bronze medal in the English senior championships. Emma didn't have it all her own way at Great Whernside, and only just held off Lisa Lacon who improved to silver after last years individual bronze. 2000 champion and twice silver medallist in 1998 and 2001, Tracy Greenway formerly Ambler finished with the bronze.
The team award went to Wharfedale Harriers with Tamara Hird, Cath Bradley and Kirsty Hall, who actually was the first ever winner of the ladies championship back in 1994 when known as Kirsty Lowther.

Photos: Eileen's, Dave's on the ascent, Dave's on the descent, Dave's at the prizegiving.

Junior Championships

Results from the Junior Yorkshire Championships at Hellifield on Yorkshire Day, 1st August.
Photos: Dave's, Tim's, Norman's and more on David Brett's site.
Newspaper clippings: 1, 2, 3, 4, and Autumn 2009 Fellrunner magazine article

Inter Regional Champs

Tykes champagne day out at Hutton Roof

John Heneghan's association with the Inter Counties began in 2004 where he finished tenth, since then he has finished fifth three times, third last year and this year had the embarrassment and joy of cracking open the Yorkshire champagne after his shear dominance of the race. John is the sixth Yorkshire Inter County winner the others being Andrew Pearson in 1998, Siggy Gould in 2000, Rob Hope in 2002, Rob Jebb in 2003 and Ian Holmes in 2004. Yorkshire men just missed out on gold medals by one point to arch rivals Greater Manchester, who won for the fourth time, other Yorkshire scorers were Karl Gray, 8th, Ben Mounsey, 12th, and Graham Pearce, 17th.

Golden girls yet again

Showing the depth of talent in the county, a young versatile squad won team gold for the fourth year, with Lizzie Adams, 4th, Emma Clayton, 5th, Zanthe Wray, 9th and Lisa Lacon 10th all enjoying waving the flag and popping the champagne. Yorkshire reserves Adam Osborne and Emily Klee ran outstanding races, next year in the Scottish Borders watch out!

Dave's photos, Eileen's photos