If Sutton Park was good enough for the likes of the 1500 metre World Championships gold medallist, Jake Wightman, and a 2.25 marathoner, Phily Bowden, it was certainly good enough for the likes of Wolverhampton & Bilston AC.
Having qualified with a high enough placing at the Midlands version a fortnight ago the senior men rubbed shoulders with the elite at the National Road Relays at the same venue. With a rejigged team due to other commitments, we made 7 changes to the team of 12 that had toed the line two weeks previously and finished in 52nd place in a total time of 4.03.01.
Jon Hart took the first leg with a rapid 16.39, Jag Singh Boparai was off second clocking 19.55, Dan Turner was third cab off the rank with 18.36, Danny Malone returned from injury to record 21.46, Tony Cheema clocked 21.32, Andy Horton 21.56, Dave Norman 23.03, Rob Sannwald-Dunn crossed the line with 20.26, handing over to Paul Clarke who, despite training mainly for 400 metres, managed 23.25, Dan Maskew ran a superb 18.21, Louie Lambeth moved the club up some places with 19.22 and Luke Maskew stormed round the course to “win” the mass start by a distance with an impressive 17.57.
There was some off road action twenty four hours later at the Blymhill Shotgun 10k, where Simon Calrow clocked 49.59 to take 26th place and 1st M65, Emily Simmonds was 29th in 50.17 and 2nd F40, Vanessa Landreau Barnes placed 39th in 52.50, and 1st F45, Mark Perry was 53rd in 56.48 and 2nd M60, and according to Strava Paul Dean ran 39.24 to place 4th but doesn’t appear on the results.
In the London Landmarks Half marathon Chris Deacon recorded a time of 1.57.17 to place 4468 and Suzanne Giles was 5319th in 1.59.54. With no clubs listed in the results and almost 20000 runners involved there may have been more but there’s no easy way to find them. I apologise if I’ve missed anyone.
Over the marathon distance in Paris, there was a 3.33.06 finish for Dave Joynson and a 5.51.19 time for Gill Mitchell as they both ticked off another 26.2 finish. And in Boston, the Lincolnshire one, Charlie Tait-Harris clocked a superb 2.46.50 to place 17th over the marathon distance, ably paced and supported by friend of the club, and second claim member, Omar Ahmed who performed an excellent job recording the same time. Also, in Boston Dave Norman competed over 10k placing 24th and 1st M55 in 43.32, and in an over distance 5k, Lucie Tait-Harris placed 2nd overall and 1st female with 22.40.
There was some track action in the NIRCA Track & Field Nationals in the US where Louise Hackett placed 2nd over 800 in 2.18.44, only losing out on the 1st place by a hundredth of a second. She did claim a victory on the following day over 1500 with a superb time of 4.37.30 claiming a championship record, and on a great weekend for her, also appears to have been part of a winning Michigan team in the 4 x 800 relays with Louise taking the third leg in around 2.19.
It was easier to find the results for a US meeting thousands of miles away than it is to find the results of Telford AC’s Spring Warm Up meeting. They still appear to have the results from a year ago on their website, but I haven’t forgotten that one and will keep looking.
Dave Norman
