Running log

Georgia Malir, fresh from representing England at an international cross-country event in Brussels, was a fine fourth in the Yorkshire Cross-Country Championships.

The competition took place again at Lightwater Valley park near Ripon, with ten races for under-13s, under-15s, under-17s, juniors and seniors.

The junior and senior ladies races were combined, however, with Malir of Ilkley the second junior behind impressive overall winner Katy Wood from City of York (25min 31sec).

The first four broke clear of the rest of the 147 entrants with a minute gap.

Susan Partridge (Leeds City), who was tenth in the marathon at the World Championships in Moscow last summer, was a close second to Wood.

Fell international Katie Walshaw (Holmfirth) held off Malir to take bronze (25:40).

Pudsey & Bramley’s Alex Bell was first of the pack to be next home in 26:50, while Helen Glover (Keighley & Craven, 14th in 27:20), Jo Buckley (Bingley, 23rd in 28:28), Sally Morley (Ilkley, 25th in 28:31), Claire Green (Pudsey & Bramley, 27th in 28:32), Rebecca Cesar Desa (Skyrac, 29th in 28:53) and team-mate Hannah Brown (29th, 28:57) all had excellent runs.

Several Skyrac youngsters also performed impressively in Saturday’s event, with Eleanor Jones second under-13 home and Alex Shipley fifth under-15.

Shipley was supported by Amy Francis (18th) and Pauline Hall (21st) as Skyrac finished second behind Holmfirth and ahead of Ilkley in the under-15 team competition.

Bingley’s Emile Cairess was a star of the male races, winning the under-17 race decisively.

He was chased by James Gormley (City of Sheffield) but the pair had a good lead over a pursuing group of six from Sheffield, Holmfirth and York.

Wharfedale’s fell international James Hall was an even clearer winner of the junior men’s race with a 100-yard gap over second-placed Luke Cotter (Rotherham). Spenborough’s Liam Steadman finished a fine fifth.

The senior men’s race was a walkover for Hallamshire’s Andrew Heyes (40:48).

Pudsey & Bramley’s John Heneghan was ninth, Bingley’s Ian Holmes 17th and Phillip Tedd from Woodhouse Grove 18th.

Spenborough youngster Joshua Woodcock-Shaw finished 27th ahead of Wharfedale’s Christian Holmes from the 260 runners.