Thursday saw the final race in this year's handicap series with 48 runners taking part. First across the line was first-timer Ruby Fong, followed by Anne Williams and another first-timer, Matt Barbrook. Fastest male on the night was Crispin Allen in 18:33, while fastest female was Libby Ferguson in 21:38. No fewer than three runners predicted times within one second of the time they actually ran, these being: newcomer Lucy Asby, Chrissie Glew and Ian Hawkes.
In the 2024 series results, it all went down to just one position in the final event! After four events, Peter Wedderburn held what looked like a safe gap over second place, but that's the thing about the handicap - it's unpredictable. Ultimately, if Peter had finished ONE place lower in the final event, and Sophie Frame had finished ONE place higher, the overall result would've been different, but as it was Peter ran out series winner by one point from Sophie. Junior runner Alfie Rowan marked his debut season with the club by claiming third place in the series - definitely one to watch for the future.
A total of 151 different runners took part in at least one handicap event this year, which is a record, as was the number of participants in the first event of the series (88). Sadly, 72 runners took part in no more than one event; however, 36 runners took part in two events, 31 runners completed the minimum three events required to qualify for a series score, Nine runners took part in four of the five events, and just three were present for every event of the series, these being: Ed Randall, Pavel Przepiorski and Philip Hammett. Of this trio, Ed Randall was the highest-placed (4th overall in the series), so Ed wins the HERO award.
Many thanks to everyone who took part, and especially to those who helped make it happen by volunteering at one or more events.
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