Helsby Sports & Social
Chester Road
Helsby
Cheshire WA6 0DL
(01928-722267)
Last Updated :
4th February 2001
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Highlights and Results
of the
20th Four Villages Half
Marathon
21st January 2001
Last year saw the best weather we have ever had, this year however we had quite the opposite. Early morning saw a sprinkle of snow on the ground, by 9.00 it became a blizzard with some of the biggest snowflakes I'd ever seen. By 9.30 I was considering procedures for delaying the race until a later time, or if need be the unimaginable cancellation until a later date. Then at 9.45 it suddenly stopped !
We had cool calm conditions, but due to the snowfall certain areas of the course had become hazardous and caution had to be adapted. The course was quickly assessed and the decision to run the race was given the OK.
Considering the wintry weather there was still a large number of runners turning out for the 20th anniversary of the event.
And so with sections of the course heavy and slippery under foot, Artie Senior our official starter got the runners away on time. Given the course conditions we anticipated before the start of the race that it would be highly unlikely for fast times, let alone any records be set. Even though times were two or three minutes down on last year there were some terrific performances.
First home for the 2nd successive year was our course record holder, Duncan Mason of Salford Harriers in a superb time of 1:07:29. He was followed by Roy Holladay from Morpeth in 1:08:02. Dave Mansbridge of Wrekin Road Runners - who was a previous winner in 1995 - came third, his time was 1:10:30. Paul Muller - also of Wrekin Road Runners - was first V40 in 1:11:53. In the V45 category Graham Ratcliffe made it two years in a row to win in 1:14:58. John Fiddler - our old friend from West Cheshire A.C. - won the V50 title in 1:19:34. Ken Burgess of Altrincham & District A.C. once again produced the goods to win the V55 in 1:22:02. Stanley Fitzpatrick from Liverpool Running Club ran away with the V60 prize in 1:23:47. Also from Liverpool came Gordon Brown to take the V65 prize, his time was 1:37:20.
Helsby Running Club for the 2nd year running took the First Male team prize with great performances by Paul Frodsham, Mark Hinson, Ian Simpson, and Paul Boileau in 9th, 10th, 11th and 30th positions overall.
The first four places in the Ladies race were all V35. Leading them home was Jackie Newton from Stockport Harriers in 1:20:04. Ever present Kathryn Charnock of Wigan Phoenix in 1:21:59. And in 3rd place from Harrogate Harriers came Sue Dolan in 1:24:49. Joan Jackson retained the V40 title for the 5th year running - a great achievement - her time was 1:27:07. The first V45, Rosalind Adams of Wrexham A.C. came home in 1:31:27. V50 Sandra Owen from Tattenhall Runners put in a terrific effort to finish in 1:32:15. The first V55 in a time of 1:56:26 was Val Machin of Birkenhead A.C. First V60 was once again Louise Gilchrist, a V65 from Middleton Harriers who finished in 1:46:26. Unfortunately an unplanned for lady V65 category had erroneously been entered into the results processing. This put Louise as a V65 and gave Clayton-le-Moors' Kitty Garnett the V60 prize - Kitty's time was 2:02:52. Due to our error both were awarded prizes.
Lorraine Hardy, Susan Candy, and Jenny York of Shropshire Shufflers were well grouped in 26th, 27th & 30th positions in the Ladies race to take the First Ladies Team prize.
Many thanks for supporting the race. If you have any comments we would love to hear from you - good or bad.
Regards,
Alec (Four Villages Half Marathon Race Director)
Here are the results of both the Ladies and Mens races, laid out as a series of tables of 100 finishers each. As usual we have separated the results from the two races so that the ladies can more easily see how they fared with respect to each other. The ladies results also include their overall positions, which explains the 'gaps' in the mens results.A full printed souvenir booklet of results, including many graphs including finishing times, average and fastest finshing times by age, the age distribution of the participants, distribution by postal code and many others is available from Alec our race director on receipt of a shiny new pound coin (or equivalent monies).
The results were once again compiled for us by our friends at Compass Computers using their Pro-Runner® software.
The list below of positions and corresponding finishing times is repeated at the bottom of each page to help you navigate your way to the results you want. Comparisons with last years can be made by going HERE (You will have to navigate your way back upto the Half Marathon Home Page to get back to the 2001 results afterwards).