Most of the club were on the streets around Aldersley at the weekend, if they weren’t pulling on the vest and racing, they were organising, marshalling, assisting in some way or supporting. Great credit should go to everyone at the club who put in a great deal of work behind the scenes, and in particular to Noel McKakly and his team who made the event such a huge success. Entries were up considerably on last year and the return to having the start and finish on the track was very well received by the competitors.
There was a home victory in both the men’s and women’s races with Sam Thursfield claiming the overall win crossing the line in 1st place in 26.46, Grace Hendy claimed the win in the ladies race coming 17th overall in 30.38, holding off Megan White who was 2nd lady and 25th overall in 31.27.
Alex Blair placed 7th in 27.58, Ben Foster was 9th in 28.32, Derrick Milligan placed 12th in 29.37 just holding off Ashley Atkinson who was a place and only a few second behind in 13th place in 29.37. Paul Dean was 15th in 30.21. Jagtar Singh Boparai placed 22nd in 31.15, Will Hughes was 23rd in 31.16, Paul Rogers claimed the 1st M60 prize in 24th place in 31.22. Andy Horton returned from injury taking 26thplace in 31.52, Tony Cheema was 31st in 32.15, Sundeep Sunar 34th in 32.21, James Hodgkiss 35thon 32.27 and Keith Carter 46th on 33.35.
With the race doubling as the Midlands Masters 5 mile Championships Lucie Tait-Harris pocketed a Midlands silver medal in her age group and finished 50th overall in 34.38, ahead of Simon Calrow who was 2nd M60 and 52nd in 35.25. Rob Edwards placed 59th in 36.04, Emily Simmonds 66th in 37.05, Ian Thursfield 74th in 38.23, Vanessa Landreau Barnes placed 90th in 39.47, Danni Braine was 94th in 40.02, Mark Perry 101st in 40.28, coach Lisa Johnson was 103rd in 40.26, Abbie Thompson was 117th in 41.31, Russ Blair 135th in 44.04 and Ian Pincher crossed the line in 140th place in 44,19.
The only other results I could find, and it look some finding, was for the Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon where, you guessed it Dave Joynson and Gill Mitchell didn’t let Christmas get in the way of another 26.2 adventure, Dave placed 62nd and 4th in his age group in 3.32.42 and Gill was 555th in 5.59.10.
As this will be the last update before Christmas, I’d just like to finish off by wishing everyone a very merry festive season, and here’s to more top-class performances next year. Have a great Christmas.
Dave Norman
