Trail blazers battle wind and rain (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Trail blazers battle wind and rain

11:53am Friday 10th October 2008 in Sport By Gazette Sports

COMPETITORS from around the country braved torrential rain along with gale force winds throughout Saturday as over 1,000 people took part in the Puma Coniston Trail Race and challenge, the final event of this year's Lakeland trails series.

With glorious sunshine the day before the event, organisers could only look on as the Lake District weather turned and almost a month’s worth of rain fell in 12 hours.

Following advice from the Coniston Mountain rescue the 15km trail was abandoned in favour of a lower 11km race.

The trail got under way at 2pm with a mass start of all runners. Over 500 competitors finished the two laps of the 5.5km circuit - a staggering amount when considering the atrocious weather conditions.

GB international John Brown of Salford Harriers won the race in a time of 38 minutes and 27 seconds. He took home £200 of prize money and Puma products. With the 2008 British fell running champion Rob Hope coming in runner up and international runner Nick Leigh of Altrincham and District taking the last podium place.

Olivia Walwyn (Altrincham & District AC) made it two wins in a row at Coniston with a fine victory in 43.16. The GB international finished well clear of international Triathlete Vicky Graves (York AC), with Ulverston's Helen Woodley in third, taking the trophy for the overall series points winner.

MP for Westmorland, Tim Farron (Dallam Running Club) finished well up in the main race in 151st and presented the prizes and Milnthorpe Steel Band entertained the drenched competitors. The event was supporting Coniston Mountain Rescue, along with a number of other charities.

More details and full results are available from the event website www.lakelandtrails.org.

Results 11.0km race Men: 1. J. Brown, 38.27; 2. R. Hope, 38.46; 3. N. Leigh, 39.21; 4. M. Roscoe, 40.25 (1st Vet 40); 5. B. Hussain, 41.05 (2nd Vet 40); 6. J. Buis, 41.11; 7. T. Bush, 41.19; 8. E. Malloch 41.57; 9. S. Robinson, 43.05 (3rd Vet 40); 10. C. Howie, 43.07 (4th Vet 40).

Women: 1. O. Walwyn, 43.16; 2. V. Graves, 46.56 (1st U21); 3. H. Woodley, 48.37; 4. L. Martin, 50.21 (1st Vet 40) 5. C. Buis, 51.44; 6. V. Plummer, 52.54; 7. S. Grindley, 53.39; 8. C. Spoors, 53.47; 9. K. Greenham, 53.56; 10. B. Taby, 54.09.