No group races? No problem for Hastings athletes...

Another week of lockdown fun for HY Runners came in the form of two more virtual challenges.
HY Runners in their latest challengesHY Runners in their latest challenges
HY Runners in their latest challenges

Runners are given a window of time to run, record their results and then posting them on to HY’s Facebook group.

The first challenge was a 5k hill run from the bottom gates of Alexandra Park, all the way to the top of St Helen’s Rd (Briars Avenue) and back down again to the gates.

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A total of 55 adults and nine juniors took on the challenge and some great times were recorded, with the overall winner the evergreen John Ralph (18.30).

HY Runners in their latest challengesHY Runners in their latest challenges
HY Runners in their latest challenges

First for the ladies and second overall was lightning-quick Stacey Clusker (19.29).

Some junior athletes took part, with their overall winner ten-year-old Megan Hopkins-Parry (23.05) – a fantastic effort placing her well up in the overall leaderboard.

First home for the boys was Iden Newman, aged nine, (24.49).

After that, 48 adults took on the weekend’s 10k challenge.

HY Runners in their latest challengesHY Runners in their latest challenges
HY Runners in their latest challenges
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The route began at the Parkrun start, proceeding east along the seafront up London Rd to Ashburnham Rd, before turning right into Dudley Rd, then Harold Rd before the westward journey back to the start line.

In spite of a horrendous westerly wind hampering times, the overall winner was John Ralph (39.42), making it a double win for the week.

Second was Andy Edmunds (41.36) and third Paul Matthews (42.05).

First female to finish was Shannon Hopkins-Parry, followed by Stacey Clusker who was pacing Fiona Norman-Brown to a huge PB (46.52)

Iden NewmanIden Newman
Iden Newman
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The weekend challenge for the junior’s runners was a fast 1500m held over the link path and involving a steep descent and ascent. Some 21 juniors took part and first girl back was Isabella Buchanan in (6.00), followed by first boy Max Phipps (6.07).

The club said a huge well done to everyone who took part in this week’s challenges.

Although the club have some very fast athletes, there is also a big emphasis on all standards and the improvement of all runners over the recent weeks have been measurable.

* Watch out for an army of red this Sunday (Nov 29) – between 10am and 4pm, every single street in Hastings will be run by HY Runners.

Max PhippsMax Phipps
Max Phipps
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This is for the club’s second lockdown charity event to raise funds for a six-year-old from Battle named Albert Longley.

He cannot sit unaided and needs a P-Pod to help him to sit in the correct position.

The club statistician has worked hard to map out all 927 streets, roads, avenues and cul-de-sacs and more than 100 runners are putting their names next to the streets they plan to run.

All runners are donating to take on the challenge. Look out for the red HY T-shirts in your street on Sunday.

You can donate at www.justgiving.com/crowdfund ing/hystreet