Medals delight for Buxton AC's young fell runners

An outstanding tally of four medals was celebrated by Buxton Athletics Club at the second race in the English Junior Fell Championships, held in the Yorkshire Dales at Hawkswick.
QUALITY QUARTET -- Buxton AC's four medal-winners at Hawkswick, from left, Alex Ediker, Finn Moffatt, Lauren McNeil and Helen Thornhill.QUALITY QUARTET -- Buxton AC's four medal-winners at Hawkswick, from left, Alex Ediker, Finn Moffatt, Lauren McNeil and Helen Thornhill.
QUALITY QUARTET -- Buxton AC's four medal-winners at Hawkswick, from left, Alex Ediker, Finn Moffatt, Lauren McNeil and Helen Thornhill.

The club took a 13-strong team, and all improved their positions in the overall standings, even though the course was extremely challenging with 984 feet of climb and a super-fast descent. But pride of place went to the quartet of Lauren McNeil, Helen Thornhill, Finn Moffatt and Alex Ediker.

Lauren was the first U18 girl home, closely followed by Helen in third, while Finn and Alex both finished third in their U14 and U16 boys’ races respectively.

In the U12s’ race, Lauren Wilshaw finished seventh and Caleb Winfield 35th in an ultra-competitive field of 90 runners. In the U14 boys’ race, Sam Soles was tenth and Luke Mamczur 29th out of 60 runners. In the U14 girls’ event, Heather Wilshaw finished 17th and Abbie Fryer-Winder 22nd. For the U16 boys, Jacob Winfield was 22nd, while Rebekah Heath came 13th in the U16 girls’ race and David Fryer-Winder was 13th in the U18 boys’ event.

Buxton runners also made their mark in the latest round of the championships, which was staged at Kirkby Malham, also in Yorkshire. Helen Thornhill edven bagged her second successive bronze medal when finishing third in the U18s’ race.

Next best was Alex Ediker, who was fourth for the U16s, followed by Rebekah Heath in seventh and Dan Soles in 13th, while David Fryer-Winder moved up the U18 boys’ standings with his best result yet.

Lauren Wilshaw finished tenth in the U12s’ event, while Abbie Fryer-Winder (tenth) was chased around the hilly course by teammate Heather Wilshaw (11th). In the U14 boys’ race, Sam Soles was 13th and Luke Mamczur 47th.

The club is so proud of the progress made by its youngsters that it is hosting a free fell-running after-school club at Buxton Community School sports field.

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