Coal Race 2010
A TENACIOUS woman smashed her own world record at the 47th annual World Coal Carrying Championships in Gawthorpe yesterday.
Hundreds of spectators watched in the rain as Catherine Foley, a fitness instructor, from Batley, won the ladies race in 4 minutes 39 seconds, a six-second improvement on the record she set last year.
Chris Birkin, of Chickenley, also beat his winning time from last year to win the men's race for the second year running, finishing with a time of 4 minutes and 29 seconds.
The traditional Easter Monday event, which sees runners lug sacks of coal for more than a kilometre from the Royal Oak pub, on Owl Lane, to the Maypole on the village green, featured children's races this year for the first time.
Susan Walshaw, president of the Gawthorpe Maypole Committee, said: "It was an absolutely brilliant day. We had more runners than ever and it was great to see new records broken."
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Weather for Wakefield
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -6 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
