BWFAC's Emily to bloom in Red Rose squad

Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde AC had runners in all age categories and there were many good performances.

However despite several fourth places there was only one team medal.

Last year Emily Japp, suffering with a heavy cold, was runner-up in the Senior Women’s Championship.

After being out of action for three months last summer with injury, Japp has been training hard; however, again, she had a heavy cold.

Despite this she finished sixth (25:28) and qualified to represent Lancashire at the Inter Counties Championships on March 10.

Lauren Gowland also had an excellent run, finishing ninth (26:55), and will be a reserve for the Inter Counties Senior Women’s team.

Jess Rogers was 20th (28:52) and completed the team which won bronze; she was also fourth Under-20 and qualified for the Under-20 inter-county team.

The rest of the BWFAC team were Karen Dunford (33:38), Laura Lawler (38:55) and Debbie Terras (44:24) as they were also the seventh Vet team.

There wasn’t a full BWFAC team in the men’s race with Darren Tremble (40:37), Paul Sparrow (42:12), Nick Hume (43:21) and Andrew Simm (43:40) competing.

In the junior races the best results were achieved by the Under-11 girls and Under-17 men who, despite each losing a member due to injury both finished fourth.

Danielle Whipp (23:01) finished sixth and qualified for the Under-17 Women’s Inter-County team.

Elsewhere, BWFAC’s Jeff Wright ran 1:54.50 at the Central Lancashire Half Marathon.

The first Club Handicap of 2018 was a Predictor race as Nick Hume set the fastest time of 25:59 and predicted 26:05.

Luke Minns (16:58), Steve Dunn (21:04) and Nicolas Unsworth (22:56) did Blackpool’s parkrun, while Peter Singleton ran 22:34 at Lytham Hall.

Bev Wright and Jake Dudley are January’s athletes of the month and Volunteer of the Quarter is Neil Salanki.