Winter Handicap, 29th January 2018
It was a busy night on the Quayside as our usual handicap numbers were swelled by guests from Active Newcastle and This Girl Can. So there were 59 runners on a cold, dry night that was quite pleasant for running.
First over the line was one of our guests, Natalie Wortley, but the cup for first club member went to Hazel Juggins in her first-ever handicap. Second member home was Andrea Saliba and Ay Okpokam made it a 1-2-3 for the women.
Continuing the Claremont girl-power theme, Janet Palmer won the Winter Shield beating Anthony Liddle into second place. This was a well deserved and long awaited victory as Janet has been in numerous finals before without ever claiming the prize. Both Janet and Anthony will have another crack at winning the shield in the spring when they will be joined in the final by Rachel Stout and Lucy Dunbar.
It was no surprise that the fastest trio on the night were John Lea-Wilson, Anthony Liddle and Roberto Marzo. John’s 23:54 was particularly impressive. The super-speedy ladies were Hannah Mainprize, Catherine Young and Lucy Dunbar. I think that Hannah’s 25:19 and Catherine’s 26:02 put them on the leaderboard for fastest ever times (I will have to check as I’m not sure that records have been maintained for a the last few runs!).
A big thanks to the start and finish teams and the on-course marshals – it was a cold night for running but an even colder one for standing still!
