LATEST NEWS on the 2012 and 2013 HORWICH FESTIVAL OF RACING events:
2012 Running event results can be found at http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2012/index.php
The committee of Horwich Festival of Racing are well underway with the organisation of the 2013 event, which will be held on June 12th to 16th. For the first time since 2009, Horwich Carnival committee have agreed that the Carnival will be held on the same weekend, with events on June 16th and 17th. This will create a major event in Horwich Town Centre on June 16th with the main day of racing and the Carnival Parade.
A major theme for this year’s races will be the links with the Olympic Games in 2012. The races returned to Horwich in 2002 in celebration of the Commonwealth Games, when some of the cycling events were held locally. This year, we celebrated London 2012, and after the Olympics we looked at our links with the success of the British teams.
Several winners of medals in London had previously taken part in Horwich events over the years. These include:
Jason Kenny who had previously ridden in our youth race
Ed Clancy who won the Horwich men’s race in 2005
Lizzie Armitstead who won our women’s race in 2007
Joanna Rowsell who won our women’s race in 2008
Dani King who won our women’s race in 2009
Laura Trott who took 2nd place in 2009
We are still researching the Olympians who took part in the running events in Horwich, but Stuart Stokes was certainly one of them.
Street Orienteering is not an Olympic sport, but some of our participants have had success in International and National events.
Tessa Hill who won the women’s race in Horwich was 11th in the World Championships in Lausanne. Murray Strain who also competed in Horwich was 11th in the men’s event.
President of Horwich Festival of Racing, Barbara Ronson said:
“We are hoping to welcome back some of these athletes in the future, but we anticipate that they will be an inspiration to many young people at all levels to come along and take part. Racing on closed roads round the town centre is a great experience for runners and cyclists. The youngest participant this year was only three years old – but who is to guess whether she might be a gold medal winner in a future Olympic Games”
For further information about the 2013 races, please contact Neil Brown (01204 693070) or Barbara Ronson (01204 695742).