Last weekend’s famine was followed by this week’s feast as there were plenty of opportunities for club members to pull on the vest. After a blank Easter weekend, the vest was everywhere for a couple of days.
We’ll start with the London Mini Marathon Trials where West Midlands athletes were racing for the opportunity to represent the region. In the 2.6k U13 girls race Kiki Guest placed 2nd in 9.33 and Erin Mia Nash was 17th in 11.16. Rocco Hawley won the U13 boys race in 8.54, Theo Ulfig placed 7th in 9.18. Grace Hendy placed 5th in 9.23 in the U15 girls race, and Fred Jones finished 3rd in 7.57, Jack Stockton was 5th in 8.13 with Oscar Davis in 6th in 8.13 and Will Hughes was 10th in 8.48 in the U15 boys version. And in the U17 girls race Isobelle Jones took the win in 8.19, Ava Kind was 4th in 9.26 and Scarlett Willoughby was 8th in 10.17.
There was significant relays action at Sutton Park as the club rubbed shoulders with the best clubs in the country in the National Road Relays. Having both mens and womens teams qualifying at the Midlands version two weeks ago it was great to see the club on the national stage.
The men took part over 12 legs of alternate long and short distances of around 5 miles and 5k. Jake Brown led the team off finishing in 57th place in 30.06, Dylan Illidge finished in 18.42, Luke Maskew picked up a few places handing over in 50th after clocking 29.35, Louie Lambeth placed the club 47th with 17.45, Ben Foster maintained that position with 30.46, Harry Dyall picked up a handful of places handing over in 44th with 17.06, Jon Hart didn’t pass anyone but no one passed him running 29.55, James Neilson clocked a rapid 16.49 for 39th, Dan Turner dropped a place with 31.23, James Wright pulled it back with 18.34, Gary Worrall placed 40th with an agonising 32.01 and Danny Malone completed the dozen with 40th place with 19.02.
The ladies placed a fantastic 22nd in their event over 6 legs, with legs 1 and 4 over the longer distance. Beth Tabor got the team off to a flyer placing 28th in 34.56, Holly Baddeley placed the club 25th with 20.15, Veronika Foster dropped a few placed but ran an excellent 23.17, Lucie Tait Harris clocked 34.50 to hand over in 26th place after storming up the hill to pass 5 within the shadow of the finish line, Sabrina Thomas picked up a couple of places with 20.59 and Maria Calleia finished things off with 21.18.
A group travelled to London for the London Landmarks Half marathon, but with 1264 pages of results and no opportunity to filter on the club I apologise if I’ve missed anyone here. Paul Dean was 50th in 1.21.57, Greg Asbury placed 144th in 1.26.48, Derrick Milligan was 291st in 1.30.14, Jo Lane was 1989th in 1.46.56 and Vanessa Landreau was 2844th in 1.51.24.
There was more action over the full marathon distance in Paris where Dave Joynson finished in 3.26.31 and Gill Mitchell finished in 5.06.16.
And there was some track action at the Nuneaton Season Opener where Michael Deans had a great time with two wins and two PBs clocking 11.95 over 100m and 24.41 over the 200m distance.
Dave Norman
