Five went to Lee Valley
Four out of the five British Masters medallists (minus Paul Wignall). l to r: Lisa Thomas, Justin Reid, Anna Garnier and Peter Giles
Competing in one of the last major meetings to be staged before the current suspension of events due to the coronavirus outbreak, a handful of the Club's athletes were in tremendous form, returning from the British Masters Indoor Championships at Lee Valley with seven gold medals between them.
Over the two days of the Championships, held over the weekend of 7/8 March, Peter Giles, 75, won three gold medals, in the 1500m on Saturday (in 5:36.94) and the 800m and 3000m on Sunday, in 3:15.12, and 12:07.08 respectively. Giles, who only took up running aged 44, also set new Masters Indoors records in the 1500m and 3000m. He now tops this year’s UK rankings in his age group at 800 and 1500m and is ranked second over 3000m.
Anna Garnier, W65, also tops the UK rankings for 1500m, thanks to her winning time of 5:54.04 at last month’s South of England Masters Indoor Championships, also at Lee Valley, and she duly delivered again, taking the British Masters title in 5:56.57.
Lisa Thomas won gold in the W50 400m on Saturday in 65.89, finishing more than two seconds clear of the runner-up and then took the silver medal in the 800m on Sunday in 2:35.50.
Paul Wignall also had a busy weekend, striking gold in the M65 200m on Sunday in 29.78 after winning the bronze medal in the 60m the previous day in 8.81. He was also fourth in the 400m.
The youngest of the five, Justin Reid, won the gold medal in the M50 3000m on Sunday in 9:21.91 after taking the bronze medal in the 1500m on the previous day in 4:28.78.
Bath Time
Jonny Cornish and Alex Milne put in stunning performances in the Bath Half Marathon on March 15, both achieving PBs. Cornish finished third in 65:16 (chip time, as opposed to the race time shown above), with Milne sixth in 66:08. Their times put them third and fifth on the all-time Club ranking list for the half marathon, which is still dominated by Club Chairman Dave Clarke's 62:11 performance in Berlin in 1992.
Some of the Club's younger runners were also in action in the penultimate East Surrey League race of the season at Croydon on Saturday, 14 March. Hector Revill was second U17 finisher in the young athletes 2.5 miles race in 14:52 with Adam Hammadi second U15 in 16:18. Ronan McArdle was fourth in the U13 race in 16:27.
At the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Sefton Park, Liverpool last Saturday (14 March), Georgie Clarke, representing the London team, was 65th in the Inter Girls race, covering the 3.8km course in 13:39; while Ellen Weir (Surrey) was 110th in 14:02. The previous Saturday U17s Georgie and Ellen represented Surrey in the UK Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships at Loughborough’s Prestwold Hall. Georgie was 45th of almost 300 runners in 23:18 while Ellen finished 85th in 24:09.
No Stopping Anna
Anna Garnier proved she is in superb – and versatile – form as she posted another W65 title-winning performance in the British Masters Cross Country Championships in Corwen, Wales on Saturday, 14 March, just a week after winning gold in the 1500m at the Indoor Championships.
She covered the tough 6km course in 28:00, beating the favourite, Sue Haslam of Scarborough, by a comfortable 14 seconds. 'I really loved the course, said Anna. 'It was fast and undulating with a couple of short testing hills. There were some boggy bits and some mud plus my favourite – a stream which we went through twice!'
Following his triple gold performance in the Indoor Championships, Peter Giles took the M75 silver medal, clocking 28:58.
(photograph of Anna by Bill Parker)
Marathon Man
Tom Cheetham edged closer to his target of 100 marathons when he finished 16th overall and fifth in his age group in testing conditions in the Thames Meander Marathon on Saturday, 7 March. Cheetham, 53, finished in 3:14:54 in the race, which takes place along the Thames towpath from Kingston to Barnes and back. This, his 92nd marathon, was intended to form part of Cheetham's build up for the Virgin Money London Marathon, which is, of course, another casualty of the coronavirus outbreak.
Results
Saturday/ Sunday, 7/8 March: British Masters Championships, Lee Valley Full results
Saturday, 14 March: British Masters Cross Country Championships, Corwen Full results
Sunday 15 March: Bath Half Marathon Full results
parkrun
14 March
Thirty-six HW runners were in action in various parkrun events on Saturday with 14 of them racing on Wimbledon Common. Edward Charlesworth was seventh of the 296 finishers in 20:23. Lisa Thomas completed an amazing 295 Wimbledon Common parkruns, finishing seventh in the women’s race in 24:20.
Nick Thomas headed home a 319-strong field in Brockwell Park in a PB of 16:14. He sliced eight seconds off his previous best set in December. Chris Ore was ninth in 19:18. Matthew Sharp was third out of 445 runners in Dulwich Park in 15:55, just 10 seconds outside his best time for the course set in September 2017.
Andy Parker was fifth out of 388 runners on his debut appearance in Stratford-upon-Avon in 17:46 while in Bishops Park teenagers Grace Eminson and Charlotte Lam were sixth and ninth.
7 March
Forty HW runners were in action on Saturday. Adam Harwood headed home a 37-strong field on Wimbledon Common in 18:37. It was the 227th time he had taken part in the event in which he made his debut in June 2009. M55 Richard Evans posted the top men’s age-graded performance, finishing ninth in 21:03, 15 seconds behind Simon Woodley.
David Lewin was third out of 1504 runners in Bushy Park in a PB of 16:52. Alex Binley was third woman finisher in Kettering in 20:54 while Matthew Sharp was seventh out of 555 runners in Dulwich Park in 16:06. Teenager Millie Doyle was second woman finisher in the Fulham Palace event in a PB of 19:35.