18/11/13

The final race of the runbritain Grand Prix took place at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k over the weekend with Mathew Hynes (Stan Marley) and Louise Damen (self-coached) the winners of the men’s and women’s races respectively.

Hynes was first across the line, outrunning a large lead pack of eight athletes over the final kilometre. The North Yorkshire Moors man revised his personal best in the process, stopping the clock at 29.23, leaving Josh Lilly and Callum Hawkins (Robert Hawkins), who also both ran new personal bests, in his wake.

In the women’s race, GB & NI stalwart Damen was victorious in a time of 33.04, just another athlete to set a personal best on this notoriously quick course. Damen was pleased with her run after struggling with injuries for most of the year, as was Tish Jones who finished second, also recording a personal best to move her up nine places in the Grand Prix standings to second. 

Despite not running on the day, Serpentine’s Nicholas Torry, the breakthrough act of the year, took overall victory in the 2013 runbritain Grand Prix. His victory was all but secured before the final race, with Dave Webb (Bud Baldaro) and Paul Martelletti taking the other podium positions. On the women’s side it was a much closer affair with Coventry Godiva’s Katrina Wootton (Harvey Rose) taking the series win ahead of Jones and Andrea Whitecombe (Dave Sunderland). All those athletes who finished in the top 12 of both categories will receive a share of the £18,000 prize money awarded to British athletes only.

The 2014 series will return on Sunday 2 March at the Mizuno Reading Half Marathon, which is also the official trial race for the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, held in Copenhagen, Denmark on Saturday 29 March.

For further details please visit the runbritain website: http://www.runbritain.com/