Bradbury duo shine in new track races for road runners

The initiative entails the organising of track races for road runners, either over one mile or 5,000 metres, and four Harriers took up the challenge at the Rushcliffe Athletics Club in Bingham.

It was a huge success, with the highlight for the Mansfield club being the performance of Sarah Bradbury in a 5K race for runners whose best times are over 20 minutes. Going into the event with a road best of 24.03, Sarah paced her race to perfection and, after a very strong last 600m, she knocked a substantial 29 seconds of that time to record 23.34. She will now look to go even faster as she embraces this form of racing.

Meanwhile Matt Bradbury made his debut on the track for Mansfield and put himself forward for the fast 5K. After setting a ferocious pace for the first half of the contest, he managed to hang on and post a fantastic, new best time of 19.25 minutes.

Two more Harriers to take part were Steve Davies, who crossed the line in a time of 20.47 in the same race as Sarah, and Bev Armstrong, who tackled the mile event and recorded a superb time of 6.12 minutes after putting in a fast first 800m and racing close to the front throughout.

On the local parkrun scene, several Harriers were looking for a personal best (PB) time or a training run, and at the Sherwood Pines event, Stuart Whysall Ellis Blake and Martha Yanney all posted PBs of 20.41 minutes, 24.47 and 28.20 respectively. Jessie Crawshaw continued her good form with 21.41, while Heather Shone clocked 29.05 and Emmie Blake 39.41.

Three youngsters ran at the Mansfield event, with Jonah Goodfellow-Beeton running 27.12, Jemima Waller 27.24 and Isobel Westwood 29.52.

Martin Fickling was first back at the Brierley Forest Parkrun, which was celebrating its first birthday. He clocked a new best of 19.25, ahead of Gary Morley in 19.56, Pete Copcutt in 24.42, Freya Longmead in 24.52, Andrew Longmead in 24.52, Peter Frith in 25.34, Sarah Bradbury in 26.57, Tina Copcutt in a new Brierley best for her of 28.16, Jim Brieder in 30.33, Jess Brieder in 35.58 and Natasha Carver in 44.10.

At the Hucknall Junior Parkrun over 2000m. Matthew Young was third overall in 8.53 minutes, while Elizabeth Sinclair was second girl in 10.04.

HAPPY Karen Kowalski marked a successful return from injury in the summer when she was one of two Mansfield Harriers to complete the famous Great North Run half-marathon on Sunday.

In front of packed crowds and the TV cameras, Kowalski clocked a season’s best time of one hour, 54.27 minutes. About half an hour behind her was harriers teammate Julie Winter, who recorded 2.21.56 after a good summer preparing for the event.

Elsewhere at the weekend, one of the club’s stalwart runners, Maddy Collinge took to the fells to tackle the Longshaw 10K event in the Peak District. A climb of more than 300m and parts of the route covered in water or rocks made for tricky conditions, but Collinge came home in a pleasing time of one hour, 29 minutes.