Across the Ages
The Club underlined its appeal to all age groups over the last two weekends, with successes for the U11s on Epsom Downs, and a contingent of vets at Lee Valley. The U11 Girls team were the standout performers in the final Downs Cross Country League meeting of the season on Sunday when they won the last of the four matches, to clinch the overall trophy, while the U11 Boys finished in the runners-up spot overall in their age group. The U13 Girls were fourth overall and the U13 Girls ninth.
Meanwhile vets Lisa Thomas and Anna Garnier were competing at Lee Valley for the second consecutive weekend. On Sunday they were amongst a handful of the club's athletes who clocked season's bests in action for Vets AC in the England Masters Inter Area Match. Lisa was second in the W50 400m (65.51) and 800m (2:33.26) while Anna was also second in the W60 800m in 2:58.85. Mark White was third in the M50 400m in 58.68 and Peter Giles, at 75, won the M70 1500m in 5:43.93.
It was a productive couple of weeks for Giles, who won a hat trick of gold medals in the M75 800m, 3000m and 1500m the previous weekend at the South of England Masters Championships, also at Lee Valley.
Lisa Thomas won gold in the W50 800m (below left) and silver in the 400m, while Anna Garnier (celebrating with Lisa, below right) took the W65 1500m title.
A dozen of the Club's athletes were in action amongst over 16,000 runners in the Vitality Big Half Marathon in Central London from Tower Bridge to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. In a race won by Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia in a new course record of 60:22, and in which distance specialist Richard McDowell (below) coming back from injury, opted to pace-make rather than compete, Rhys Boorman finished 57th in a PB of 1:09.43. Hussein Ahmed was 76th and third M40 finisher in 1:10:43, with Dimos Evangelidis 163rd and 15th M40 in 1:14:14. Jacob Plummer was 395th in 1:19:35, taking almost a minute off his previous best time set at Hampton Court last February. Rob Tuer was 399th in 1:19:39. Chris Proffitt finished in 1:28:20, while Gary Forde was 171st M50 in 1:41:03.
Results
Sunday, 1 March: England Masters Inter Area Match, Lee Valley, Full results
Sunday, 1 March: Vitality Big Half Marathon Full results Run Britain
Sunday, 23 February: British Masters Pentathlon Championships (inc South of England Championships), Lee Valley Full results
parkrun
Teenagers Hector Revill and Ellen Weir took the honours on Wimbledon Common, where 14 HW runners were in action on Saturday. Revill made it a hat-trick of wins this year as he headed home 210 runners in 17:58 with Ellen finishing as the leading woman in fifth place, in 20:27. Alex Binley was third woman in 22:24.
Meanwhile in the Fulham Palace event, Ellen's U17 team-mate, Georgie Clarke, was first woman home in 19:52, with Eloise third in a pb of 20:05.
Over in Bushy Park Ross Franks headed home a 1029-strong field in 16:16 in his first parkrun of 2020, while Ore Adewale made her debut in the Hackney Marshes event where she was fifth woman in 22:30.