21 November 2011

The most significant performance of the weekend came from Mara Yamauchi. The Beijing sixth placer in the Marathon marked an impressive return from injury with a fine third in the big Japanese marathon.

Yokahama Women’s Marathon, Japan, November 20

Mara Yamauchi (coach: Shige Yamauchi) went second in the McCain Power of Ten rankings with a fine third place in 2:27:24, which is well inside UKA A standard time of 2:31:00 for the Olympic marathon. Yamauchi passed halfway in 73:03, over 20 seconds behind the leading five but by 25km she caught the leading group. At 40km, she had dropped seven seconds behind the eventual top two and lost a further 45 seconds over the last 2km, but it was an exceptional time in just her second completed race in 2011. Louise Damen (self-coached) was unable to finish, withdrawing earlier in the race.

Results http://www.yokohamawomensmarathon.com/common/pdf/jp/2011-11-20_yokohama_result_jp.pdf

Leeds Abbey Dash 10K, November 20

Jonathan Taylor (Coach: Gordon Surtees) won a competitive Leeds Abbey Dash 10km sharing the winning time of 29:23 with Morpeth clubmate Nick McCormick (Lindsay Dunn). A notable performance came from Marc Scott (coach: Ken Harker)  in 12th in 30:07 which is believed to be the best ever British time by a 17 year-old.

IAAF World Championships marathon representative at Daegu, Susan Partridge (Coach: John Montgomery) won the women’s race in 33:48 Results can be found here https://www.raceplus.co.uk/raceplus-index.php?content=1&event_id=LAD11

NCAA Championships Division 2, Spokane, USA, November 19

While the Dvision 1 race takes place on a Monday, there were two good British performances in the Division 2 race this weekend. Matthew Bond (Coach: Norman Poole) was a fine fourth in the 10km race in 31:00.8, only 15 seconds down on the winner Ryan Haebe while Tina Muir was seventh in 21:20.8 Results here http://www.ncaa.com/content/division-ii-womens-cross-country-championship-individual-results

http://www.ncaa.com/content/division-ii-mens-cross-country-championship-individual-results