21st May 2018

CLAYTON AND SWINBURN WIN AT MOUNTAIN RUNNING CHALLENGE OPENER

The British Athletics Mountain Challenge got underway this weekend at the Inter-Counties fell running championships held at the Lads Leap fell race, located in Crowden in Derbyshire.

Emma Clayton (coach: Andrew Henderson, Yorkshire) and Nick Swinburn (North East) were crowned Inter-Counties champions after excellent performances, and both also captured full points in the first event of the Challenge series.

Clayton used all her experience as she battled with a strong senior women’s field, claiming another big win on the domestic mountain running circuit and her third inter-counties title. Battling with Bronwen Jenkinson (North Wales), she took the title by eight seconds.

Jenkinson – the 2016 world mountain running junior bronze medallist – showed her credentials over the challenging course, securing second place ahead of Emma Gould (William Laye, Warwickshire) who completed the top three.

There were double celebrations for Clayton who led the Yorkshire team to the senior women’s inter-counties title. Alongside fine displays by Katie Walshaw in sixth and Helen Berry in 11th, the trio topped the podium.

Nick Swinburn (Lindsay Dunn, North East) earned a dominant win after an impressive performance over the Derbyshire hills. The Morpeth man won by nearly a minute as he cruised the inter-counties title ahead of Maximillian Nicholls (Peter Brenchley, Kent) who placed second. Chris Arthur (Lancashire) was third at the event.

There was another celebration for Yorkshire who won the men’s team title for the tenth time as well aided by a fourth-place finish by senior international Jack Wood and excellent displays by Joe Baxter and Steve Franklin. It is the fourth time Yorkshire have done the double in the team standings at the inter-counties.

Full results of the British Athletics Inter-Counties and Mountain Running Challenge can be found here.