26 October 2015

25 October – Great South Run

Jo Pavey (coach: Gavin Pavey), two-time winner of the Great South Run, came second in the women’s race, after winning a thrilling sprint finish against Doris Changeiywo in the final few hundred metres – finishing with a world-over-40 best time of 52 minutes 44 seconds.

Pavey, who took two seconds off her previous best set in 2006, said: "I’m going to have to step things up over the winter to get enough mileage ready for the 10k qualifying in May."

Gemma Steel (John Nuttall) also impressed with a fourth place finish in 53:06, whilst fellow Brit Faye Fullerton (Georgina Fullerton) continued her return to form finishing seventh in a PB of 55:16.

Vivian Cheruiyot won the women’s race in 51.17 (just 17 seconds outside the course record), with fellow Ugandan Moses Kipsiro winning the men’s race in 46.00.

The first British man home was Ross Millington (Steve Vernon) clocking a PB of 47:46 in 10th, followed closely by Chris Thompson (Mark Rowland) who ran 47:55.

25 October – Frankfurt Marathon

Impressing on his marathon debut in Frankfurt, Callum Hawkins (Robert Hawkins) finished in 12th place clocking 2:12:17 – 103 seconds inside the qualifying standard for next summer’s Rio Olympics.

“I knew it would hurt at one stage but it hurt pretty much all the way through,” said the 23-year-old. “But actually it went almost to the plan we had. The pacemaker was due to go through halfway at 66.20 and went through it in 6.22 so you can’t ask for much more than that. He got me to 30k on the right pace and that kind of thing helps. I am really chuffed with the time.”

Also making his marathon debut was Jonny Mellor (Steve Vernon), who came home in 2:16:52 to finish in 24th spot, with fellow Brit Stuart Robinson (Helen Clitheroe) clocking 2:21:35 in 45th place.  The race was won by Sisaye Kasaye of Kenya in 2:06:26.

The first British female to cross the finish line was Hayley Munn (Nick Anderson), who finished in 16th place in 2:38:22. Gulume Chala won the race in 2:23:12, securing an Ethiopian one-two-three.