Gill Bland brings ou a busy set of results including some fantastic performances at the World Half Marathon Championships
Sublime Smith leads fine GB display
Despite the “current situation” we’ve been treated to some great running spectacles lately thanks to the London Marathon and Valencia World Record Day. This weekend didn’t disappoint either as the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia delivered fantastic racing and a women’s-only world record. Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya was the lady to set that new world record in 65:16. It was a fast race in general – Germany’s Melat Yisak Kejeta set a national record of 65:18 to take the silver medal and despite running what would have been a world record time going into this race, 65:19 was only enough for a third place for Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw.
Ireland’s Anne Marie McGynn ran a fantastic race to finish in 42nd place in a PB and new Irish record of 71:40. Samantha Harrison led home the GB women’s team in 71:53 with youngster Becky Briggs running a 73:08 Half Marathon debut and Clara Evans coming home in 73:11. Unfortunately Great Britain were not able to field a full women’s team, due to the injuries of Purdue, Davis, and Carruthers leaving them not in the form to be able to compete.
The men’s race was similarly exciting, with Joshua Cheptegei riding on the high of his 10,000m World Record as he faced his Half Marathon Debut. It was not all as simple as the previews would have led us to believe though – we’ll not spoil it for you and let you read the full report here to find out what happened. However, we can’t leave you hanging when it comes to the GB and IRL men’s results, which were absolutely storming!
Every single one of them set a new PB. Jake Smith obliterated his previous mark to run 60:31 for 18th place, a new Welsh record and third on the UK all time list behind Mo Farah and Callum Hawkins. In a fine run for 50th place Mo Aadan ran 62:41 in his fastest half marathon performance since 2018. Kristian Jones ran 63:03 for 60th place, Adam Craig was just two spots behind him in 63:12 and Tom Evans was 64th with 63:14. For Ireland, Kevin Seaward ran his second race this year and his second PB, finishing in 62:58 (58th place) and Hugh Armstrong placed 70th in 63:37.
Top quality results on the roads
Back in the UK the Cheshire 10k at Arley Hall saw Jess Judd setting a benchmark at the start of her next training block. She finished first in 32:32 ahead of Jip Vastenburg in 34:03 and Kirsty Longley (34:14). Longley’s results sees her move to 2nd on the UK v40 rankings for 2020. Ohmar Ahmed took the men’s victory in 29:24 with a strong fight for second and third resulting in a 29:36 for Chris Parr and 29:37 for Alex Brown. James Westlake and Rob Warner also ducked under 30 minutes to complete the top five.
The Velopark 10 mile hosted by Mornington Chasers saw the top 10 all go under the hour mark in the men’s race. Kent AC took the top spot thanks to Nathan Wilkins and a 55:09 finish. Cambridge Harriers’ Phil Dickens took second in 56:17 and Niall Gilchist third in 57:20 for Clapham Chasers. The women’s race was a clean sweep for the host club. Janine Makaronidis was first in 67:48, Danielle Smreczak second in 73:36 and Camilla Ray third in 73:52.
The Race Rapid Mallory Park 5k got the midlands in on the speed action as Sale Harriers athlete Aimee Pratt charged to the finish a massive PB of 15:53 leaving triathlete Sophie Coldwell to take second for Charnwood with a 14s improvement on her own previous best, (though she wasn’t the only one in her household running a PB this weekend). Cloe Hubbard rounded out the fast podium in 16:12 and another PB, for Newark AC. It was another triathlete, Harry Leleu, who took the men’s victory clocking 14:07 to just edge out Chris Perham of Poole AC (14:08). Third spot went to Seb Anthony in 14:20.
RunThrough were busy around the country this week with a whole slew of races on offer and boy did they deliver some great results. Kicking them off on Wednesday was the Olympic Park Chase the Moon 5k which saw Kurtis Gibson win in 14:58, Ahmed Abdulle second in 15:03 and Paul Quinton third in 16:33. In the women’s race it was Cara Huckstep who took the win in 19:57 ahead of Ellie Cumner (20:01) and Cyn Cano (20:12). Over 10k the podium belonged to Kate Rose (39:17), Laura Thompson (41:16) and Kat Owens (42:23) and for the men the medal spots went to Ewan Cameron (32:58) Simone Luciani (32:58) and George Day (33:28).
The Newbury Race Course 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon was also well attended and saw Jack Gregory race home in 15:46 for 5k followed by Lewis Banner (15:56) and William Levett (15:59). The women’s competition was similarly swift as all of the top three went well under 20 minutes. Grace Copeland led them home in 16:56 with Sophie Lloyd second in 17:19 and Emily proto third in 17:29. Samantha Amend was back out racing again in the 10k and was rewarded with a 37:37 win. Isabel Stubbs took silver in 39:00 and Laura Baylis followed her home in 40:21. It was Alastair Smith who broke the tape in the men’s race in a time of 32:58, keeping a competitive distance ahead of Mark Worringham (33:12) and Matt Risden (33:24).
The longest distance of the day, the Half Marathon was owned by a brilliant result from James Bellward who smashed out a 69:21 for the win. Jack Boswell was second in 72:02 and Stephen Blake third in 72:18. Maturity showed its strength in the women’s race as V45-er Vicki Taylor claimed her crown in 84:23, beating Rebecca Tinnelly (1:29:49) and Jitka Hall (V40, 1:30:32).
Stunning performances from Davies and O’Regan at Bedford Autodrome Marathon
Finally, on Sunday it was the big one, the Running Grand Prix at Bedford Autodrome. The women’s marathon race was red-hot with the top seven all running sub three hours. It was great to see Jo O’Regan back racing 26.2 and in PB form, clocking a 2:41:31 to beat her best by over 40 seconds despite being well ahead of her nearest rival and not having a very exciting course! Laura Boehm nabbed second place in 2:45:29 and Becki Timmings who took third in 2:49:19.
The men’s race were not to be left in the shade either. Andrew Davies was streets ahead, finishing what must have been quite a lonely race in an awesome 2:17:12, taking a convincing victory over Paul Piper (2:24:26) and Chris Mason (2:25:36).
Race plans have changed 4 times in the last 5 weeks for @fellrunningandy and not once did he flap, moan, panic or get frustrated! Today he ran 2:17:12 solo to get his first ever marathon win and top the ‘Proper Old Men’ UK rankings once again! #legend @RunThroughUK 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/eSud9lJKRa
— Steve Vernon (@SteveVernon29) October 18, 2020
In the Half Marathon Kristian Watson (68:04) and Emma Hodson (77:01) were first home, bettering Phil Martin (68:23), Robert Elmore (70:55), Julia Bijl (78:19) and Georgina Watson (81:54). 10k results were: Samuel Roberts – 31:00, Michael Eccles – 31:08, Harry Tullet – 31:44 and Clare Thurgood – 36:24, Chloe Ridewood- 37:40, Ellie Sherriffs – 39:48. The swift times continued right through the distances with the 5k podium looking like this: Holly Dixon in first (16:12), Milly Dunger second (17:41), Lily Farr third (18:54) and for the men, George Gurney first (15:31), with Sam Sutherland in a photo finish for second in 15:38, just diving in ahead of Matt Kitching on chip time, who finished third in 15:39.
Blickling Half Marathon was won by Neil Adams in 1:17:04 and Leanne Finch in 1:25:05. Full results are still coming in and can be found here.
The Hercules Wimbledon 5k Relay event looks like it was a good chance for clubs to take on some team racing in the capital, given that most of the normal cross country seasons have been cancelled. If you’ve got access do let us have them. Otherwise we’ll just leave this insta-post here and let you imagine them.
If road races seem just a little too easy for you then perhaps you need to sign up for the Wansfell Uphill Only race next year. It’s only 2.5k long but climbs 400m and the organisers say that “if you can get close to, or even beat, your current time for 5k flat, that will be very good running!”.
This year’s hardcore racers-extraordinaire were Jacob and Scout Adkin who smashed the competition finishing in 13:53 and 15:50 respectively, with Scout taking 9th overall as well as the women’s win. Chris Richards was runner up in the men’s race in 14:47 followed by Rob Jebb in 14:51. Jess Bailey was second for the women in 17:54 ahead of Nichola Jackson (17:58)
The Maverick Adidas Terrex X-ULTRA Jurassic Coast “ultra” winners were Alex Van-Tuyl (4:32:50)and Marta Vigano (5:40:01), “long” victory went to Lewis Ryan (3:57:27) and Louisa Robbins (4:28:05) with Dale Seddon (1:14:43) and Jenny Marshall (1:29:55) taking the “middle” wins and Ed Bird (44:58) and Elissa O’Brien (55:07) first in the “short” distance.
And that brings us to the end of a rather fulsome week of racing. See you next weekend!
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