Holmfirth Harriers women, junior and senior athletes all showed up well in the Yorkshire Road races and relays.

Staged at the Don Valley Stadium for the final time, Holmfirth’s athletes produced some strong results.

Holmfirth’s ladies showed their strength in depth as they fielded three teams in the championships.

Margaret Sykes led the ‘A’ team off over the 3km course to a cracking start in third place, clocking a time of 11 minutes 25 seconds – the ninth fastest time of the day.

Julia Johnson ran well on the second leg, dropping just two places in 12.36, and Claire Leaver picked up a place on the third leg running 12.05.

This form was maintained by Kath Farquhar on the final leg with 11.53 to give the A team an excellent fourth place, in 47.59, which was ahead of strong competition from clubs such as Leeds City and Wakefield, teams who both fielded GB internationals.

The ‘B’ team earned a good position in the middle of the field, with Lucy Verrill having a fine run on leg one to be in ninth in 12.38.

Ruby Sykes used her track speed and strength, making an impressive debut at the senior level, finishing in 11th in 12.58, while Liz Woodfield picked up two places on the third leg running 13.13.

She handed over to Nikki Brown, who ran well to maintain the team position in 13.07, for an overall time of 51.56.

Thirteen may be unlucky for some, but the ‘C’ team ran a consistent race in 13th place from start to finish.

Kirsty Henderson led off on the first leg in 13.28, handing over to Emma Serjeant on leg two, who ran 14.19 and was racing on her birthday!

Jean Shotter ran leg three in 14.04 and the final leg was completed by Jo Bailey-Taylor in 16.42, with an overall time of 58.33

The race was won by Rotherham in a time of 44.53, with Susan Partridge of Leeds City, recently returned from her World Championship marathon success, clocking the fastest leg in 10.16.

In the juniors the first race of the day was the Under 13 road race for both boys and girls.

First home for the club were Ollie Rees in fourth (11.26), Nicky Farquhar sixth (11.28) and Jimmy Burke 10th (11.48), which secured gold team medals for the boys.

Next home was birthday boy Daniel Howatson, in 20th place in 13.01, Samuel Bedingfield 24th in 13.10 and Tom Haley-Porteous 29th (13.41), with the B team finishing in a very creditable sixth place.

Sophie Allan was a lone representative for the club in the girl’s event and she had a strong run and finished 13th in 13.19.

There was a gold medal for Olivia Sykes in the Under 15 race after she finished as first girl in 11.20.

Sykes was joined by teammates Daisy Smith and Amy Kettlewell who finished in 28th and 29th places, respectively, and the girls team finished seventh.

In the Under 15 boys event Lewis Bartholomew had a strong run in 10th place in 11.16 and Andrew Farquhar was 26th in 12.14.

The Under 17 races saw Holmfirth field two teams who battled hard in a very close race to finish in seventh and eighth places.

Lavell Pierre led off for the first team home completing his lap in 10.59, and he handed on to Alex Robinson (11.12), with George Green last man (11.03).

Eddie Hinchliffe was first off for the team home second returning in 11.16, handing on to Aaron Kettlewell (11.01) with Chris Law running the last leg in 11.37.

The girls race included two Holmfirth athletes with Lucy Farquhar running the first leg with a time of 12.36 and Sophie Spencer was on the second leg in 12.47.

The junior athletes from Holmfirth will next be in action on September 21 in the Northern Road Relays to be held at Stanley Park in Blackpool.