Week Ending - 2023/12/17

WARREN WINS THE GADDESBY GALLOP

Badgers star Danny Warren capitalised on his excellent current form by winning the 2023 Gaddesby Gallop cross-country race on Saturday. The 37-year-old ploughed his way through and along a river, across a pond and through a drainage tunnel as part of the 5.25-mile course. His winning time of 34:28 earned the club chairperson a nice shield and comes off the back of what has been his best-ever cross-country season to date, after placing second twice and fourth in the first three races in the Derby Runner XC league series this term. In 2022, he finished third in this race and he was delighted to go even better still this time around.

Club founder Nivette Chester was another in action over mixed terrain at the weekend as she took on the significantly longer Celtic Christmas Ultra in South Wales. She battled for a shade under seven hours to get around the challenging 34-mile course, an impressive feat given there’s only around that much daylight so close to Christmas! 

In sunnier climes, Justin Haywood was the first V50 to finish in the Marcha Corrida Do Pai Natal 9K race in Portugal, showing he still has what it takes to pick up silverware at both home and abroad. The rest of the weekend’s action was limited to parkrun on Saturday morning, but there was once again no shortage of success across the various venues patronised by Badgers. 

At Battlestead Croft, Burton, Dave Hill took first place in 17:50 with teammate Glyn Broadhurst making it a Badgers 1-2 with a superb second place finish of 19:47. Megan Griffiths took third place at Tamworth Castle with Mark Repton clocking 19:07 to finish eighth overall. Carl Ford took an incredible five minutes off his personal best with a great time of 27:49. 

Chris Tweed was the first Badger back at a busy Kingsbury Water Park in 22:03 with Matt Green also making the top ten. Jill Miller finished third female with 100 Marathon club ace Karen Thompson also making the top ten ladies. Other runners enjoying top-ten finishes included Suzy Farrell and Colin Lees at Holbrooks, Laura Starkey at Woodgate Valley and Rachael Browne at Wyre Forest.