The focus was on London at the weekend as all eyes turned to the marathon on Sunday and the mini marathon 24 hours earlier, and there were plenty of athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC treading the streets of the capital representing the club, charities and the West Midlands region.
Things got off to a flying start on Saturday with the mini marathon, an event that was one of the early stepping stones for World, Olympic, European and Commonwealth glory for the likes of Keely Hodgkinson, Jake Wightman, Laura Muir, Josh Kerr, Jess Judd and Steph Twell. Hoping to follow in their footsteps was Owen Ulfig who led home the field in the U15 boys race winning in a time of 7.41, Oscar Davis was 37th in 8.22 and in the U15 girls race Ronni Read placed 53rd in 9.30. In the U17 womens event there was a 7th place finish for Isobelle Jones in 8.29, Ava Kind finished in 8.58 and Scarlett Williams in 9.02. In the U13s age group Fred Jones was 2nd in 8.16, Sam Ball 17th in 8.47, Will Hughes 38th in 9.11 and William Bassford was 53rd in 9.29. In the girls race Grace Hendy was 58th in 10.18.
Twenty-four hours later and over considerably longer a group pounded the streets from Blackheath to the finish on The Mall with Jay Patel bringing the group home in 3.11.14 in 2963rd place, Phil Evans was 4255th in 3.21.30, Holly Baddeley produced a massive PB of 3.24.51 in 4749th, Dave Joynson was 4877th in 3.25.37. Adam Cotterill finished in 3.50.58, Rob Carrington came home in 4.11.35, Danni Braine finished in 4.13.43, Gill Mitchell in 5.02.41, Ivan Fletcher in 5.44.51 and Chelsea Blanchard in 6.49.14. All these were easy to find after filtering the results by club. Lisa Eardly had no club listed and finished in 5.32.56 and there may have been more but they are impossible to find on the website.
Danny Malone also starred over the marathon distance crossing the line in Chester in an impressive 2.48.49. And there was a father and son combination taking part over the half distance in the Great Scottish Run Half Marathon in Edinburgh with Dylan Illidge finishing in 142nd in 1.22.06 and Mark Illidge in 1054th in 1.39.29.
Dave Norman
