19th October 2009

Weekend Round-up

19 October 2009

Nike National AAA Men’s 6 and Women’s 4 Stage Road Relays Championships. Sutton Park, Birmingham 17 October

Men’s

MO FARAH (Newham & Essex Beagles) ran the fastest time of the day to help his club to the men’s title. Running the penultimate leg, Farah clocked 16:33 and his follow team-mates of Dave Mitchinson (17:30), Chris MacKay (17:16), Lee Merrien (17:10), Kevin Skinner (17:42) and Moumin Geele (17:03) combined to win the race in 1:43.14 to finish ahead of Belgrave Harriers and Aldershot, Farnham & District. Second fastest of the day was Chris Davies (Telford) 16:42 and third fastest was James Miles (Phoenix) 16:49.

Women’s

CHARLOTTE PURDUE (Aldershot, Farnham & District) ran the fastest time of the day with 13:53 on the final leg to ensure her club took the title for the third consecutive year, backed up by Emily Adams (14:39), Steph Twell (14:00) and Louise Small (14:37), the Hampshire outfit took the title in a time of 57:09 well over a minute ahead of runners-up, Chester-le-Street (58:17) who had Freya Murray on the final leg and she fell an agonizing one second short of Purdue’s time. The race was decided on leg two with Steph Twell moving her club into an unassailable lead with the third fastest time of the day. This was a fine return to racing after illness after the World Championships in Berlin. City of Norwich, with former British 3,000m steeplechase record-holder Barbara Parker and current Loughborough student Rachel Stringer in their squad claimed the final podium place.

Abingdon Marathon, 18 October

PAUL MARTELLETTI (Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets) was a clear winner of the men’s race in 2:28.37 while Sam Amend (Handy Cross) was first women home in 19th place in 2:45.38 running over 16 minutes faster than her previous best.

Cardiff Half Marathon, 18 October

SIMON LAWSON (Cardiff U20) claimed victory in very useful 65:50 from team-mate Micahel Johnson 66:04 and Simon Jones (Belgrave) 66:30. The women’s race was won by Genet Measso from Ethiopia in 75:03 from Caryl Jones (Carmarthen) 76:52 and Ann-Marie Hutchinson (Neath) 79:15.

ING Amsterdam Marathon, Netherlands, 18 October

DAN ROBINSON (Stroud) finished 11th in a life-time best of 2:12.14 to go to the top of the Power of Ten rankings by over three minutes. This represented a fine return to form at his specialist distance after running a solid 64:14 at the Great North Run last month following a long period of illness and his time was almost a one minute improvement on his previous best time. The race was won by Gilbert Yegon from Kenya who set a new course record of 2:06.19 to improve Haile Gebrselassie’s record by a mere one second. Yegon’s team-mates, Elijah Keitany and Paul Biwott took the second and third places with 2:06.41 and 2:07.02 respectively.

In the women’s race Collette Fagan (Victoria Park City of Glasgow) finished in eighth place in a time of 2:45.11 and Gladys Ganiel-O’Neill (Belfast) finished in 10th place in 2:46.46. The race was won by Everusalem Kuma from Ethiopia in 2:27.42 with team-mate Woinshet Girma taking the runners-up spot in 2:29.49 and home favourite Hilda Kibet (Netherlands) taking third in 2:30.31.

LaVern Gibson Champiosnhip, Terre Haue, Indiana. 17 October

BRITISH athletes were out in force representing Butler University at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country in Terre Haute, Inidana. Under-23 international Andy Baker (Yeovil) finished in second place in the elite field of runners with Tom Boardman (Leigh) 76th in 24:54.2, Rob Mullett (Lewes) 118th in 25:23.9, Kris Gauson (Edinburgh/Belgrave) 127th 25:31.8, Stephen Lisgo 174th 26:02.2.

White Race Pre-NCAA Invitational to Washington, Terre Haute, Indiana, 17 October

RUTH SENIOR (City of Norwich) led the New Mexico Lobos women’s squad to a seventh place finish in the elite national field at Indiana State’s Pre-Nationals Invitational. The former Loughborough student in her first year at New Mexico finished in 34th over the 6km course in a time of 21:23.7. Fellow Brit’s Nicky Archer (Vale Royal) 21:39.7 and Ashley Gibson (Elswick) 21:39.9 finished in 51st and 52nd places respectively while Delyth James (Morpeth) 21:51.8 finished in 78th place.