This weeks’ roundup starts with a high profile marathon in Berlin, an iconic course that’s recognised as one of the fastest, if not the fastest in the world and has been the site of a number of record breaking attempts. Jay Patel aimed to set his own record and succeeded in recording a shiny new PB but was agonisingly close to breaking the magic three hour barrier coming home in 3.00.13 in 4612th place.
There was another outstanding result on the tarmac in the Knutsford 10k where Jon Hart finished in 4th place in a blistering 31.16, only 5 seconds behind the runner up on gun time in a race won by GB international Jonny Mellor.
There was club representation in the ESAA English Schools 50th Race Walk Championships in Bedford where Aimee Thursfield placed 5th in the junior girls race over 2k in 13.01.22, Megan Grove finish 4th in the intermediate girls race over 3k in 20.23.04 and Ema Hurbanova was 5thin the same race in 20.49.17.
And there was some Monday night action in the Andy Holden Memorial Run, over 4 miles of local canal towpaths hosted by Tipton Harriers. Not surprisingly the home club swept up the majority of the prizes. Ben Foster mixed it with the local talent placing 6th in 23.16, Gary Worrall was 8th in 24.51, Tony Cheema put the finishing touches to his Chicago Marathon training coming home in 14th in 25.28 and Paul Dean placed 36th having missed the start and was always chasing, stopping the clock in 32.26.
Dave Norman