Olympic gold medalist Jonny Brownlee is set to appear at this year’s Harrogate 10k.

The annual event, which is celebrating its fifth year, will be held on Sunday, July 2, and start and finish at the Harrogate Sports and Fitness Centre.

British triathlon star Brownlee will present prizes to the top three runners in each award category.

The 33-year-old has won three Olympic medals in his career, including bronze in the individual triathlon at London 2012 and silver in the same race at Rio 2016.

He went on to win gold in the mixed relay at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

The event organisers, local running club Harrogate Harriers, are gearing up for the event with over 90 members volunteering to accommodate runners of all levels.

The Harrogate 10k. Picture: Ray Thomson.

The race will also see a fun run with children in school years 2-5 completing 1.3 km, and years 6-9 completing 2.5 km.

Sue Moul, race director and Harrogate Harriers club member, said: 

“Harrogate Harriers are looking forward to welcoming 1,000 runners back to the Harmony Energy Run Harrogate 10k and fun run in 2023. 

“Our beautiful course through the Crimple Valley and our Kids Fun Run means that this is something all the family can enjoy. The support of Harmony Energy is crucial as it enables us to share our love of running with our wider community.”

Peter Kavanagh, CEO of Harmony Energy which sponsors the race, said: 

“We’re delighted to be back supporting such a brilliant local event. It’s great to see people of all ages taking part. 

“Good luck to all those participating.”

For more information on the race and how to take part, visit the event website here.

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This story is sponsored by St. Aidan’s & St. John Fisher Associated Sixth Form.

St. Aidan’s & St. John Fisher Associated Sixth Form is based in the heart of Harrogate neighbouring the famous Stray. With excellent bus and rail links, it provides an easily accessible and outstanding education for students already familiar with either school and offers a welcoming environment for new students.

Ahead of the Information Evening which takes place on Thursday January 19, the Stray Ferret spoke to two talented sisters who joined the Associated Sixth Form as newcomers moving to the area from South Africa and who are grateful to the schools for helping them to achieve their dreams.

Hannah Carey studied Dance, Biology and Spanish at A Level and is now training full-time at the prestigious Rambert Dance Company in London. 

Previously at school in South Africa, Hannah had the challenge of adapting to not only a new school but a new country. She explained how she found it: 

“In the Associated Sixth Form, I did not find myself to be the only dancer in my year group (as I had been at my old school) so I was presented with an array of opportunities. 

“As I studied for my A Levels, it of course got harder and harder to manage the commitment demanded by my education and my developing dance career outside of school. 

“My dance teachers were incredible and al of the staff in the Associated Sixth Form were really supportive throughout this time, towards me and other athletes in school. Their support enabled me and other students to achieve success in academic subjects and follow our dreams, whether that was to study dance as in my case or to pursue other sports or performance activities to an elite level. 

“I can say without a doubt that I would not be where I am now, if it wasn’t for the support and encouragement I received from the Associated Sixth Form.” 

Rower Lauren Carey is a student at the prestigious Ivy League Yale University in the US, where she is studying Economics and is a member of Yale Women’s Crew. She also competes annually at the World Championships with U23 Team GB and dreams of reaching the Olympics. 

Joining the Sixth Form for Year 13 only, the invaluable pastoral support the Associated Sixth Form offers to newcomers was essential to Lauren. She studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A Level in the Associated Sixth Form and we asked her about the welcome she received: 

“Diving headfirst into my final year of A Levels was always going to be tricky and I had the added concern of making new friends when friendship groups had already been formed. The friendly ethos of the Association and the staff and students made this much easier. I met some amazing people who had a real impact on me.

“Furthermore, academically the institution is brilliant. I struggled a little because I was transferring my South African education to a British one, but I was met with an overwhelming offering of help.”

The Sixth Form is well known for excellent results in academic subjects but actively encourages students to get involved with the extended curriculum.  Lauren recalled how she experienced the support of the Sixth Form with her commitment to sport:  

“St. Aidan’s & St. John Fisher Associated Sixth Form was a really understanding institution when it came to my sports. Whether it was allowing me to leave class 10 minutes early so that I could sprint to the train to get training on time, or the agreement that I could use my free periods to run to the gym to lift some weights. 

The shared Christian ethos of both St Aidan’s Church of England High School and St John Fisher Catholic High School continues to thrive in the Associated Sixth Form and this is reflected in the personal qualities of the students who attend the schools, as Lauren explains: 

“The Associated Sixth Form taught me to be hard working, kind and determined. The teachers inspired me and pushed me towards my dreams, something I am forever grateful for.” 

St Aidan’s Associated Sixth Form Information Evening takes place on Thursday 19 January 2023. For further details and to book your place today, click or tap here. 

The event provides the opportunity for parents/carers of Year 11 students currently attending either of the schools and new students and their parents/carers to meet subject teachers, current Sixth Form students and key staff. There will also be a presentation at which you can find out more about the excellent academic standards and pastoral support available. 

England karate competitors will be training in Ripon this week, as they make their final preparations for next month’s Commonwealth Karate Championships in Birmingham.

The team will be training under national team coach, Ady Gray, at his school, The Karate Dojo.

Seventeen athletes will take part in the event, where they will practice their kata skills.

Kata is the Japanese word for ‘form’ and sees athletes recite choreographed patterns of martial arts movements.

Mr Gray said:

“This training camp will put the finishing touches to the athletes’ preparations for the Commonwealth Karate Championships on September 6 and 7.

“As the England head coach, it will be great to bring my athletes and coaching team together and show them what our city has to offer and what a great venue Ripon is for our final preparations.”

Following the training camp, the athletes will head to Birmingham to take part in the Commonwealth Karate Championships.

They will competing in the event for national teams on September 6 and 7, which is followed by a club competition between September 8 and 11.

In its 10th edition, competitors from around the Commonwealth will be coming to the city, which recently hosted the Commonwealth Games.

Thursday’s training event will be open to the public and people will be able to take part in a training session with the team.

Mr Gray hopes that the camp will lead to greater exposure for the sport, both in Ripon and beyond.

He pointed to the fact that karate is already a popular sport, saying that his dojo sees people at “all stages [and] ages.”

However, he admitted that karate did not have the money it needed to reach the attention of more people. The sport made its debut at the Olympics in Tokyo last year. Mr Gray added:

“We’ve got to get that exposure.”

He now hopes that the separate championships will lead to karate being included as an official part of the Commonwealth Games in 2026.

Harrogate Olympian Axel Brown has treated children at his former prep school to a special show and tell.

Axel Brown attended Brackenfield School between 1995-2003 and returned recently to talk about competing in the two-man bobsleigh at this year’s winter Olympics in Beijing, representing Trinidad and Tobago, the country of his mother’s birth.

Children had the chance to sit in Mr Brown’s bobsleigh and ask questions about his rise to Olympic fame.

Children try out the bobsleigh.

When he competed in Beijing, the school took time out of the day to watch on the big screen and cheer him on.
Mr Brown, who had seen a video of the children watching him, said:

“Seeing the kids cheering me on and chanting my name still gives me goosebumps. Seeing that was genuinely one of the most fulfilling moments of the whole experience. It’s those moments that make it all worth it.”

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Joe Masterson, headteacher at Brackenfield, said:

“Representing Trinidad and Tobago on the international stage is a huge accolade not only for Axel, but for us too – we couldn’t be more proud of the heights Axel has reached so far and we’re certain there is more to come from our super-fast and super-agile ex-pupil!”

Mr Brown, who also attended Harrogate Grammar School, played American football for Division 1 NCAA team the Colorado State Rams before taking up bobsleigh in 2014.

He said:

“I have always preferred sports with short fast efforts like sprinting, which is why I played American football in place of rugby. I also like the idea of taking one aspect of a skill and trying to do it really well, so bobsleigh has allowed me to focus and really find a niche.”

Founded in 1977, Brackenfield, is an independent school for boys and girls aged two to 11.

Harrogate man Axel Brown will compete for the Trinidad & Tobago bobsleigh team in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which kicks off today.

If you ask someone about bobsleigh, most people will recall the 1993 smash hit film Cool Runnings. It featured the trials and tribulations of the Jamaica team as it battled to compete in the Winter Olympics.

Brown was born and raised in Harrogate. He attended Harrogate Grammar School from 2003 to 2011 and excelled at American football and taekwondo before discovering bobsleigh in 2014.

He previously competed for Great Britain but qualified to switch to Trinidad & Tobago because his mum is from Pointe-a-Pierre in the country.

For the uninitiated, bobsleigh is a winter sport where teams barrel down an iced track in an aerodynamic sleigh while racing against the clock.

Brown has a crucial role as the pilot of the team, and sits in the sleigh to steer it along so it can produce the greatest speed.

The Caribbean country hasn’t competed in the games for 20 years, and Brown is hoping their efforts can inspire a new generation.

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Speaking to Trinidad & Tobago Newsday in December, Brown said:

“It is exciting that now all of a sudden the Trinidad & Tobago population is kind of embracing us and what we are able to do.

“Hopefully there are other Trinidad & Tobago teams that are inspired by what we are doing. I think we certainly have the athletic pool from which to choose great athletes from but also the four that we’ve got at the moment are doing incredibly well and I am really excited to see what they can do.”

The Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 opening ceremony takes place today, where Brown will be cheered on from back home.

Brown is a supporter of Harrogate horticulture charity Horticap, which showed its support for him when some of its students held the Trinidad & Tobago flag.

Think of an England sports coach living in the Harrogate district who enjoyed a remarkable summer, and chances are Gareth Southgate comes to mind.

But there is another option — and this one didn’t have to settle for second best.

Chris Bartle was high performance coach of the Great Britain equestrian team that won its first Olympic team gold medal for 49 years in Tokyo.

Despite living just a dozen miles apart, the two men have never crossed paths. Chris says:

“I’d love to meet him. Some of the things he’s quoted as saying are similar to my mantra. We seem to have very similar philosophies.”

Like Gareth, Chris is regarded as one of sport’s nice guys. But unlike the Swinsty man, whose life is consumed by England duties, Chris spends most of his time in the Harrogate district at the Yorkshire Riding Centre in Markington, which he runs with his wife and sister.

He says he spends about two-thirds of his life at Markington and one third on GB coaching duties.

When he’s at Markington, he still teaches everyone from talented juniors to Olympic stars at Markington.

The family riding centre in Markington.

Olympic riders in Markington

Chris’ Belgian mother opened the riding centre at Markington in 1963, 11 years after his parents moved to the village, which is between Ripon and Harrogate.

The family still lives on site and Chris takes a hands-on approach, teaching everyone from talented juniors to Olympic stars and generally mucking. When we visited he’d just been on a cherry picker helping mend a roof — something we doubt Gareth does at Wembley.

With its four training arenas, livery, cross-country fields and on-site accommodation, the centre caters for riders of all standards.

Everyone from bygone stars like Harvey Smith and the Whitakers to current Olympic riders from Sweden, Brazil and Germany have trained at Markington. Chris says:

“I look at the print out of riders at the Olympics and it’s amazing how many have connections with the Yorkshire Riding Centre.”

The centre also has an elegant wedding venue, built by the Wilberforce family of anti-slavery fame. The Wilberforces still own nearby Markington Hall.

The wedding venue

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Chris studied economics at Bristol University and jokes he has spent his entire life with horses to avoid a proper job.

He started as a jockey but was too tall so he switched to eventing and then dressage, at which he finished sixth at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He has been to all nine Olympics since.

His coaching CV is phenomenal. He was national coach to the German Olympic three-day event team that won team gold at the Beijing and London Olympics in 2008 and 2012. The Germans also won gold at Athens in 2004 but were stripped of their medals when a horse failed a doping test.

Olympic glory

Chris, who had trained the British eventing team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, was appointed GB high performance coach in 2016 in the hope of emulating Germany’s success.

He masterminded the team’s preparation for Tokyo, which included staying outside the athletes’ village to minimise the covid risk. He says it was like staying in a five-star prison, and despite their caution there was a constant fear of covid jeopardising everything.

The British team gave an utterly dominant performance to take team gold for the first time since 1972. But his abiding memory is rather sad.

“It was the athletes on the podium wearing masks and you can’t see them grinning and how happy they are.”

Chris says he is equally proud of the gold medals he helped Germany win, but adds:

“Team GB was different to doing it with another nation. For that reason and how long it had taken for GB to get gold, that’s a standout moment. It was a super highlight.”

Britain’s Tom McEwen also won individual silver in the eventing but, like any coach, Chris wasn’t totally happy.

“It could have gone better. I felt there was another medal to be had in the individual eventing. I slightly blame myself for that because Laura Collett slightly over-egged it in preparation. She tried to get better and better and in that heat and humidity the horse didn’t sparkle in the dressage phase as much as it usually does.”

One of the training areas at Markington.

California dreaming

Chris is 69 now but looks remarkably fit and isn’t planning to put himself out to grass anytime soon. He hopes to continue in his current GB role until 2028 when the Olympics will return to Los Angeles, 44 years after he competed there. It would cap one of the longest and most remarkable careers in sport. He says:

“Los Angeles is an attainable goal and it would complete the circle.”

His 14-year-old daughter Poppy, a very talented rider, will be 21 then, which must be at the back of his mind but he’s careful not to put any pressure on her.

Whatever happens in his career, Markington will remain home.

“We are very fortunate where we are. The whole of this area is just an amazing place to live — although some of my colleagues tend to think this is the frozen north!”

Harrogate District Diving Club is gearing up to welcome 40 new divers next week after the Olympics increased interest in the sport.

One of the club’s former members, Ripon’s Jack Laugher, won bronze in the men’s individual three-metre springboard event at the Tokyo Olympics to go with the gold medal he won in Rio in 2016.

His success, along with that of other divers, such as Tom Daley, has encouraged more people to take up the sport.

The Harrogate club has helped to develop numerous elite divers over the years, most notably Laugher and Oliver Dingley.

Leanne Jalland, chair of the club, said the creation of Brimhams Active, which was set up by Harrogate Borough Council to manage leisure facilities, including the Hydro, had been a “positive step” because it had led to increased diving time in the pool.

Ms Jalland said:

“This is a positive step forward, we’re increasing the number of divers locally.

“Everyone is keeping to their promises and we’ve been able to come up with a pathway, which means diving in Harrogate is secure long-term.”

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The club’s success comes even though the pool’s diving platform has been out of use since cracks were found in November last year.

The poolside scaffolding looks set to remain in place for some time as the council has yet to appoint a contractor or offer a timescale for the repair work.

In the meantime, divers are making use of the club’s two mobile one-metre diving boards. Some members have had to travel to West Yorkshire to use better diving facilities.

A council spokesperson said:

“We will be replacing the current diving platform at the Hydro due to its age and the amount of work required to fix it.

As previously confirmed we will announce timescales for the replacement once a contractor has been appointed and a programme of works has been agreed.”