28 March 2011

UKA 100km CHAMPIONSHIPS, Edinburgh, March 27

On a glorious spring day, Scotland’s Craig Stewart and Wales’s Emily Gelder claimed the first UKA road running titles of 2011.

A strong field of domestic ultra runners had gathered in Perth,

to contest the longest and possibly most arduous event in the UK road running calender.

After the  field had settled down in the opening hour or so, it was England’s experienced international  Alan Smalls who showed at the front.  He was being shadowed by Ireland’s Daniel Doherty and John Byrne,George Dayantis of England and the Scottish duo of Craig Stewart and Grant Jeans.

In the ladies race ,the experienced English pair of Adela Salt and Heather Hawker  led from Wales’ Emily Gelder.

At the 50km halfway point Smalls in 3.26.20 held a two minute lead over Stewart and Jeans and Doherty all 3.28.20, with Dayantis  and Irish pair John Byrne and Keith Whyte  a further two minutes adrift.

Salt and Hawker reached the halfway mark in 3 hours 50, with Emily Gelder  almost 5 minutes behind (3.55.20) but looking very comfortable.

At 60km Stewart had moved ahead  of Jeans  and Doherty, but Smalls still held a two minite lead. As experienced ultra observers know everything can change  in the latter stages  and in the next 10km Stewart  slowly closed the gap on Smalls  and by 70km they were running together as joint leaders.They stayed together for the next 10km and went through  80km (Approx 50 miles ) in just over 5 hours 30 min with Jeans still very much in touch just 3 minutes back.Dayantis and the Irish pair of Byrne and Doherty having their own little battle for 4th place.

Over the next 10km, spurred on by the enthusiastic home support, Stewart opened a lead over Smalls and led by just over a minute and seemed to be moving away. With victory   seemingly secure,  Stewart increased his lead slightly in the closing stages to record a magnificent victory in his first 100km road race and claim the UK and Scottish titles  in a time of 7 hours 01 minute and 35 seconds.

The Forfar Road Runner, who has been running well in ultra trail races over the last two years with victories in the 42 mile Devil O the Highlands and 52 mile Highland Fling  to his credit, was delighted with his run  and even happier to learn he had  also dipped under the  UKA “A” standard  of 7.02.00 and secure automatic selection for the GB  100km team at the World  championships.

Smalls  held on for a deserved  PB and second place in 7.04.53.

Over the last few laps the battle for third place turned into quite a scrap ,with Jeans(7.11.53) fading away in the last 5km  to be overtaken by  Irishman John Byrne (7.09.33) and George Dayantis (7.11.11).All three recording substantial PB’s in the process  

In the ladies race,   Emily Gelder (Dulwich Runners) continued to show she is maturing into a  top class international  ultra runner. Maintaining a steady pace throughout, she retained her uk title improving her pb by over 10 minutes in 8.00.37 and setting a new ladies Scottish all comers 100km record. Early leaders Salt and Hawker faded and  their compatriot Karen Rushton took second place in 8.16.05, joining Gelder in achieving the women’s A standard for the GB 100km squad.

In a very exciting team competition Gelder with her compatriot Jen Salter secured victory for Wales for the first time  in the women’s Anglo-Celtic plate  by a narrow margin of under two minutes based on their first two runners cumulative time.

  In the men’s team race English domination of this event, stretching back to its inauguration on 1995, was finally ended. They were beaten into third place with the young emerging Irish team  all setting Pb’s to claim second spot. Fittingly the Scottish squad of Stewart and Jeans backed up by Dave Gardner in 8th place (7.30.47) claimed victory on home soil.

In the 50km race, which contained the Scottish Championships, there were wins for John Brown in 3:18:40 and Kate Jenkins in 3:43:35.

Results: http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/index.php?p=80&itemType=fixtures&itemId=12894

South Of England Road Relays, Milton Keynes. March 27

There were wins for Newham and Essex Beagles and Aldershot Farnham and District. The fastest legs were by  Louise Small (Mick Woods) in the women with 18:20 for the 5.51km while in the men’s Luton’s Matt Clorley (Coach: Tony Simmons) was fastest with 16:11 for the short leg while Chris Mackay was fastest for the 7978m long leg with 23:36.

Results http://mcs.open.ac.uk/mkac/11seaaheader.htm

Wilmslow Half Marathon, March 27

This race incorporated the England Championships and there were wins for Birchfield’s Burundian Jean Ndayisenga in 64:24

Women’s winner Julie Briscoe enjoyeda huge breakthrough taking three minutes off her best to run 73:29 and go fifth in the McCain Power of Ten rankings for 2011.

Results http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=42540

B&Q Eastleigh 10km, March 27

There were wins for Hannah Whitmore (Bill Foster) who ran 33:12 in her first ever 10km race to go top of the McCain Power of ten women’s rankings and for Commonwealth 10,000m representative John Beattie (Coach: John Nuttall) who set a PB of 29:42 to go fourth.

Results http://www.chipresults.co.uk/

Home Countries International, Antrim, March 26

England dominated winning all 4 team races. Jon Pepper won the men’s 10.8km race in 34:12. Scot Matthew Gillespie was an easy winner of the Under 20 race over 7.2km in 22:36.

Juliet Doyle led an England clean sweep in the women’s race over 7.2km winning in 25:47 from Emily Wicks on 25:55 while Hannah Walker (Coach: Michael Dunphy) won the Under 20 race over 5.4km in 18:58 from Grace Nicholls.

Results http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=41009

Aviva Schools International, Antrim, March 26

England also dominated here with the first eight in the junior girls race led by ESAA and National winner Bronwen Owen in 11:30 and the first six in the junior boys race with Paulos Asgodom just edging Tom Holden as they shared the winning time of 13:49 and reversed their Aviva English Schools places.

Jessica Judd (Coach: Jeremy Freeman) led a England 1-2-3 with a typical dominant 41 second victory in 14:17 to give her a clean sweep of all the major titles this year. In the Intermediate boys race, England took eight of the first nine polaces but the odd man out was Scotland’s Ahmed Sharif who won in 17:29 a second up on ESAA winner James McMurray.

Results http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=50013

Stamford University Invitational, USA, March 25

Callum Hawkins (Coach: Robert Hawkins) went top of the McCain Power of Ten  rankings for Under 20 men’s 5000m with a big personal best of 14:17.57.

David Forrester (Ray Vose) set a 40 second PB in his race with a time of 13:47.60 to go second in the McCain/POT rankings for 2011 to Mo Farah’s indoor record.

In the women’s 10,000m, Sarah Waldron (David Sunderland) went top of the 10,000m rankings at her debut in the track event with 33:51.08 which placed her 20th.

Luke Cragg (Phil Townsend) went top of the men’s 10,000m track rankings with his 29:24.01 clocking for 18th place.

Results here

http://www.gostanford.com/sports/c-track/stats/2010-2011/stan_res.html

30^th Dudinska Patdesiatka, Dudince Slovakia, 26^th March

In the 30th edition of the EAA Permit Meeting in Dudince, Slovakia, Dominic King (Colchester Harriers, Coach Andi Drake) went to the top of the Power of 10 rankings for 2011 and moved to 26th on the UK All Time list when clocking a personal best of 4.15.55 for 26th place. This is also well inside the UKA Guideline time of (4.20) for the European Cup Race Walking in Portugal in May. Unfortunately Dominic’s twin brother Daniel (Colchester Harriers, Coach Andi Drake) went through the halfway point in 2.02 on course to challenge his personal best 4.04.49 set on the same course in 2008. But his challenge was ended due to bad blisters at the 40km mark. Racing on home soil the race was won by Slovakian World Cup Winner Matej Toth in a national record of 3.39.46.

This represents the fastest road time over 50km in 2011 but slower than Yohann Diniz’s World Track Record of 3.35.27 set earlier this month. In a top class field former World Champion and Record Holder, Australian Nathan Deakes finished his first 50km since taking the world title in Osaka, clocking 3.48.02, which should put him in line for selection for the Australian team for Daegu. Ireland took the double in the Women’s races as World Championship silver medalist Olive Loughnane took the Women’s race in 1.32.40. In the Junior Women’s race compatriot Kate Veal who finished 4th in last summer’s Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, clocked an extremely impressive debut over 10km of 46.43 to destroy the Irish Junior Record.