The sun came out at long last and our Team Blizard athletes once again shone in races across the country, with top results at the Northern and Midlands road relays, as well as in the Wilmslow half marathon and the Thorney 10k!

Our own Jenny Blizard was the star of the show in the Northern women’s 6 Stage Road Relays in Sunderland on Saturday, when she ran the 10th fastest time of the day for the longer 3.95m leg in a superb 23:49! Her super fast time helped Rotherham Harriers to finish second team overall at the hugely competitive road relays, which sees the best runners in the North battling it out over six legs of various distances.

Also in action in Sunderland were four of our top Team Blizard male athletes, all taking on the 12 Stage relays and helping their teams to top positions in the challenging event.

Barlick’s Matt Lalor, more accustomed to tackling hilly fell races, ran a fantastic 21:18, placing him 63rd fastest on the longer legs out of 196 finishers, helping his club to 11th team overall.

Meanwhile, Brian Rose and Chris Ireland represented Sheffield in style on the shorter legs with times of 12:19 and 12:03 respectively, placing their club 14th overall, not far behind Barlick!

However, the fastest and best men’s position of our athletes on the day came from Barnsley’s Dan Kestrel, who ran 20:24 to place 26th overall on the longer leg, proving his sparkling form is peaking at exactly the right time ahead of this Sunday’s Manchester marathon!

There was another top runner from our stable taking on the best of the rest at the Midlands road relays on Saturday morning in the form of Wolverhampton & Bilston’s GB elite, Phil Nicholls.



Phil has been out of competitive action for a while, but returned with a bang at Birmingham’s Sutton Park, running a blistering 27:14 to post the sixth fastest time of the day from all the long legs! It’s great to have you back Phil!

Earlier in the week, Team Blizard elite’s Fiona Davies continued her regular podium appearances when she won the first of the South Yorkshire Road League five mile races on Wednesday evening. Always impressive on all terrains and distances, Fiona posted a very strong 31:49 on the very hilly race at Lodge Moor in Sheffield, a big improvement on her previous best on the course of 33:16. Check out the photos of her racing below to see just how vertical some of the climbs were!



Also in phenomenal form on the roads is Clowne’s Gareth Lowe, who ran one of his fastest ever half marathon times of 70:10 to place 9th overall at the Wilmslow half marathon! The consistently excellent V40 is ranked in the top 10 for his age in the whole of the UK, and shows no sign of slowing down!
Gareth was joined by Tickhill’s Max Polson, who ran a strong 97:20, and Rotherham’s Rob and George McCarthy ran round together to post times of 1:51:33 and 1:51:34 respectively.

Over at the Paris marathon, Gainsborough's Hanna Bennett obliterated her PB with a brilliant 3:52:12, eclipsing her previous 4:19:28 best for the distance, while Totley's Phil Kelly also smashed his life time 10k best at Wakefield with a 38:34 result, placing him 6th M40 on the day. Doncaster's popular M50 Jay Buxton wasn't far off his PB either, posting a strong 39:11 to finish fourth in his age group.

Finally, the wind was up but the performances matched its strength when six Team Blizard athletes took on the first of the Cambridgeshire road league races at the Thorney 10k in Peterborough yesterday.



Nene Valley Harriers’ Yvonne Scarrott ran a confidence-boosting threshold paced 43 minutes to clinch the top V45 prize ahead of this Sunday’s Manchester marathon, while our own Ruth Jones and Yvonne’s club mate was just ahead in a steady 42:50 to take the first V35 trophy. Fellow Harrier Barry Warne was in his best form for some time when he ran a fabulous 41:35 to finish second M55, with Eye’s Lee Whitton never far behind in 41:49. Also in prize winning condition was Bushfield’s Eric Winstone, who swiped the top M60 prize with a 45:18 result, but ahead of them all were Eye’s Ben Heron in third overall with a super fast 34:16, and Werrington’s Tom Musson, who ran 38:10 to place 17th out of a field of 274.