Tosh stoops to conquer in fell race (From Craven Herald)

Tosh stoops to conquer in fell race

9:09pm Wednesday 21st December 2011 in Athletics

harfedale Harriers were celebrating after five of their runners occupied top ten positions in the Stoop fell race run at Penistone Hill on Sunday.

Sam Watson led the strong Harriers contingent home in fourth place with a time of 30min 32 sec in a race won by Rossendale’s Sam Tosh.

The England under-23 fells champion clocked 30:32 and was more than a minute ahead of 2010 winner Ian Holmes of Bingley Harriers.

Holmes was chasing a 12th victory in the event, but Tosh proved too good for him on the day.

Calder Valley’s Alex Whittem came home third in 32:14, some 16 seconds ahead of Watson, Dave Kirkham chased his Wharfedale Harriers colleague home to claim fifth spot in 32:37.

Keighley & Craven’s Stephen Brook had a strong run to claimsixth place in 32:53 while Stephen Chew followed up his recent win at Mytholmroyd by taking seventh position in 33:00 after holding off Wharfedale colleague Jonny Bradshaw who was eight in 33:05.

Wharfedale’s top-ten contingent was completed by Nick Charles- worth. His time of 33:21 earned him tenth place.

Two more Harriers to enjoy good runs in the cold conditions were Shaun Chew and Ted Mason.

Chew was 12th in 33:30 while Mason who was pipped for the BOFRA English Fell Running title this year, came home 20th in 34:15.

The ladies prize went to the impressive Calder Valley runner Helen Fines who was second in the 2011 English Fell Running Championships.

Fines finished the testing Stoop race in 45th place overall with a time of 36:12.