With a few regulars away we were pleased to welcome John Reed and Andy Costello making their first appearance of the year at the September handicap. Both slotting in nicely at the speedy end of the pack with Cos our high handicapper on the night.
Our winner was however our low handicapper, Paul Oxley. It’s unusual that Paul gets to lead us off but he made the most of it launching his charge to retain the Harestock Handicap trophy with a strong gun-to-tape performance. No-one really came close to catching Paul but John Reed ran a PB equalling time to chase him all the way to the line. Felix Freeman-Bown was third setting a fine new PB of his own, we have high hopes that Felix might one day be our youngest ever winner of one of our handicap events.
Another good day for the handicapper with half the field beating their handicaps and half not doing so Johnny Herron just missed par and Paul Oxley was our 9th different winner in the 9 events so far this year.
Fastest on the night was the aforementioned John Reed (6’18 PB equalling but stays at #31 in the all time list), Pete Sansome (6’36, no change) and Jack Sansome (6’45, no change) were our other sub-7 speedsters. Amongst the ladies Liz Marshall (7’23 new PB and up to #23 on the ladies list) was our fastest on the night, rolling back the years to beat her PB set way back in 2019, many congratulations to her.
And the overall series?
We’re now 9 events done, 3 to go and we still have 6 runners still with a chance of securing one of our coveted 12/12 medals. Incredible really, do these people not have other lives?
With 12 races and 4 discards over the season the “part-way” placings in the overall standings are always a bit missleading but cream rises to the top so with 3 races and 1 discard to go the big Daddy is still a smidge ahead of the young pretender. Same names but with some minor shuffling amongst the chasers it’s now Liz Marshall, Jonny Herron and Sarah Witt that stand in close attendance waiting for those Sansomes to slip up.
New to this and wondering what it is all about? A monthly handicap race (on the first Thursday of the month) around an urban 1.14-mile loop in the Harestock area of Winchester. That means that the next race in the 2025 series will be on 2nd October 2025.
All are welcome to come along and give it a go, there is more info here: Harestock Handicap