Golden Days
Photograph: Athletics Weekly
HW athletes enjoyed a weekend of outstanding success, winning the South of England Senior Men’s Cross Country Relay title, the individual British Masters marathon title and clinching gold medals across the age groups in the Surrey Masters Cross Country Championships.
Competing in the Relay Championships at Wormwood Scrubs for the first time, the senior men won emphatically. Making his debut for the Club, Will Woodcock brought the team in first on the opening 4.5km leg in 13:42, the third fastest time of the day. He handed a six second lead to Charlie Eastaugh who stretched it to 19 seconds, in 13:54. On the third leg Finn Johnson kept HW in title contention clocking 14:07 and handing over to Ross Franks seven seconds behind defending champions Highgate Harriers. Franks ran a storming 13:29 to post the second fastest time of the day and anchor the team home in 55:12, 12 seconds ahead of defending champions Highgate Harriers.
Team manager Keith Scofield was delighted with the team's debut in the event. 'It just shows us all how far the Club has come in the last few years, and to post the second and third fastest times on the day makes it even better', he said.
In the Age Group Championships, the U15 Girls A team was eighth and third Surrey club with first leg runner Lulu Weisz clocking 7:39 over the 2km course, handing over in sixth place to Millie Doyle (8:08) and finally Millie Thorpe (7:54). The B team finished 19th.
Georgie Clarke (8:42) was the fastest member of the U17 Women's trio which finished 11th over the 2.5km course. Niamh Thompson (9:15) and Selma Hegvold (10:01) completed the team. The U13 A team finished in 23rd.
Gold for Marathon Man McDowell
Richard McDowell is the new British Masters Marathon Champion. He finished third overall in the field of more than 4000 runners in the Yorkshire Marathon, which incorporated the Masters Championships. His time of 2:25:00 was not far off his PB of 2:23:08 set at last year's Virgin Money London Marathon, where he was first M40. 'I went about as well as can be expected, given that I only completed three long runs in the lead-up', said McDowell. “I had aimed for around 2:25, but considering my preparation, the conditions and the rolling course, I’m pretty happy with that. I kept the leader, Mark Buckingham (elite triathlete and training partner of the Brownlee brothers) in sight until about 30km but with about 10km to go I was starting to fade. Fortunately most others were fading too. It was cool with a fair breeze, so working in a pack would certainly have been beneficial, but I didn’t have the luxury of company for much of the race'.
Surrey Success
There were more gold medals for HW athletes at the Surrey Masters Cross Country Championships in Morden Park. In the 6.8km race Gina Galbraith took the W40 title in 26:05, and Lisa Thomas the W50 title in 26:44. Together with former international race walker Estle Viljoen they also clinched silver W45 team medals, while Estle also took individual bronze in the W45 category.
Peter Giles won M75 gold, covering the 6.8km in 28:28, while Alison Purnell won silver in the W55 category in 28:58; and in the 10km race Peter Lee (37:27), Tom Cheetham (40:32) and Charles Hampden-Smith (41:00) combined to take team silver medals in the M50 category.
Results
Sat 19 October SEAA Cross Country Relay Championships Full results Power of Ten
Sat 19 October Surrey Masters Cross Country Championships, Morden Park Full results
Sun 20 October ASDA Foundation Yorkshire Marathon and British Masters Marathon Championships Full results
parkrun
Teenager Ellen Weir was first female finisher in Saturday’s Wimbledon Common parkrun, posting the top age-graded performance of the day. She clocked a PB of 18:48, slicing 48 seconds off her previous best time set in March this year. She was sixth of 348 runners and the first of nine HW finishers.
Matt Sharp was third of 336 runners in Dulwich Park in 16:04 while Jessame Coulson was first woman finisher in Bridport, Dorset, in a PB of 22:11.