9:43am Thursday 18th February 2010
By Andy McAllister
BEN Fish has broken his own course record at the Winter Warmer 10K Road Race hosted by Blackburn Road Runners at Witton Park.
The Blackburn Harrier made his intentions clear from the start as he put clear daylight between him and his chasers even before the preliminary lap and a half of the running track had been negotiated.
After that he simply ran away from the field to finish three minutes clear.
The only question was whether the record would fall with a diversion in the last kilometre due to path repairs slowing the athletes on rough terrain.
He made it with six seconds to spare in 31:23 to earn the £100 bonus on offer, heading a local clean sweep.
Rossendale’s Andy Buttery won the battle for second in 34:22 with Paul Guinan of Blackburn Harriers taking the veteran prize for his third spot in 35:03.
The Harriers of Blackburn and Rossendale each had three in the first dozen with Chris Fell and Thornton Taylor eighth and 12th for Dale and Brian Fogarty ninth for Blackburn, so it was the fourth counter that proved crucial for the team standings and it went Rossendale’s way thanks to Sean Molloy’s 14th.
It was a busy weekend for athletics and at 264, this was a smaller field than last year.
Accrington Road Runners concentrated on the cross country but at least Shaun Livesey favoured the road taking a creditable 15th place.
For Darwen Dashers, though, it was a Club Championship event so they were out in numbers, with Russ Corsini their top man taking 21st and second over 50 behind Thornton Taylor.
On a hilly circuit which features a long climb up Buncer Lane, only 23 runners could break 40 minutes with Taylor clocking 37:34 and Corsini 39:28.
There were further successes for the Darwen club as Duncan Neild and Andy McAllister won the over 45 and over 55 classes.
There was less of a local feel in the women’s race which won by Leanne Sheehy of Leigh in 39:04, a much slower time than in recent years and more than four minutes outside the course record set 12 months ago.
Blackburn’s English Schools’ fell running champion Beckie Taylor made light of the hills to take third in 40:57 and the in-form Joanne Haslam from Darwen Dashers was fifth in 44:11, a single second ahead of Blackburn’s Jane Hodkinson.
The pair won the over 35 and over 45 classes while the Dashers took team honours ahead of Blackburn with Janine Fallon in eighth, Linda Clarkson 10th and Sarah Roberts in support.
Clitheroe based Jennifer Adams, who represents both Accrington Road Runners and Northern Vets, was the winning over 55.
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