Manchester Marathon, 3 April

Jonny Mellor (coach: Steve Vernon, club: Liverpool) and Becky Briggs (Geoff Watkin, City of Hull) won the senior men’s and women’s titles respectively at the Manchester marathon on Sunday which also acted as a trial event for the European Championships and Commonwealth Games (England).

Mellor, who holds a PB of 2:10.03 from 2020, clocked 2:10.46 to win convincingly in the trial event.

Ross Millington (Steve Vernon, Stockport), making his marathon debut, crossed the line in 2:11.37, well within the England qualifying standard of 2:14.00 and inside the 2:14.30 time for the Europeans.

Kevin Seaward (Andrew Hobdell, Cardiff) was inside Northern Ireland’s consideration standards as he was third in a time of 2:11.54. Meanwhile, Andrew Heyes (Hallamshire) was the next Briton back running a personal best of 2:13.52.

Briggs made a breakthrough over the 26.2-mile distance as she ran inside the standards for the Commonwealths and Europeans. Her time of 2:29.04 was comfortably ahead of the next elite woman in the field.

Naomi Mitchell (Nick Anderson, Reading) was next across the line in 2:30.54, also within the standards, as was Georgina Schwiening (Peterborough) in 2:31.35.

Samuel Kolek (Kirkby AC) won the wheelchair race in a time of 1:48.24 from Matthew Clarke in second in 1:57.10.

Results

Stanford Invitational, CA, USA, 1-2 April

Charles Hicks (Shaftesbury Barnet) ran inside England’s Commonwealth Games 5000m standard as he posted a time of 13:24.58 to finish second overall.

Elsewhere, Jenny Nesbitt (Chris Jones, Cardiff) was second in the women’s 5000m in 15:24.59, with Charlotte Arter (Chris Jones, Cardiff) running a PB of 15:30.35.

Olympic finalist Nick Miller (Tore Gustafsson, Border) opened his 2022 season with a throw of 73.13m to win the men’s hammer competition.

Results

Australian Athletics Championships, Sydney, 2 April

Calli Thackery (Nigel Brookes) secured a World Athletics Championships qualifying standard over 5000m in Sydney.

The Rotherham athlete ran 15:09.08 to put her at the top of the UK rankings so far in 2022 and the time also saw her move inside the top 20 in the UK all-time list.

Results

World Athletics Race Walking Tour, Poděbrady, Czech Republic, 2 April

There was a personal best for Heather Lewis (Martin Bell, Pembrokeshire) as she pushed to a time of 94:02 in the women’s 20km race walk. Slicing 11 seconds off her previous best, the time was also the fifth best by a British woman in history.

In the men’s race Cameron Corbishley (Andi Drake, Medway and Maidstone) secured a season best of 88:12.

Results

Velocity Fest 10, Jamaica

Reigning European 100m champion Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet) opened his 2022 campaign with a swift 10.10 (-0.4) in the 100m. After running 10.50 (-4.2) in the heats in very windy conditions, he returned later in the day when the weather had settled to run the 10.10 time for second position.

In the men’s 200m, Miguel Francis (Glen Mills, Wolverhampton and Bilston) won in a season best of 20.66 (0.3).

Results

Sri Chinmoy 100km Race, inc Anglo Celtic Plate Home Countries International, Perth, Scotland, 3 April

Course records were broken at the Sri Chinmoy 100km race which incorporated both the British and Scottish 100km Championship together with the annual Anglo Celtic Plate Home Countries International.

In near perfect conditions, England’s Matt Dickenson (Clapham Chasers) and Scotland’s Jo Murphy (unattached) claimed the British 100km championship titles in Perth.

It was one of the most competitive 100km races ever seen in Great Britain with seven men breaking the seven-hour barrier and three women under the eight hour barrier with a string of personal bests throughout the field.

Running his first 100km road race, Dickenson achieved almost even 50k splits to win in 6:39:34 breaking Charlie Harpur’s 2019 course record by almost four minutes.

Jason Kelly (Metro Aberdeen) was second in 6.42:23 with Ollie Garrod (South London Harriers) taking third in 6:46:50, while Gareth King was fourth in 6:47:33. King’s time was a new All Ireland and also a Northern Ireland 100km record.

Scotland’s Jo Murphy produced an incredibly paced race to run a negative split coming home in 7:41:12, which was a personal best by almost 10 minutes and obliterating the long-held course record of 8:00:30 set by of former GB international, Emily Gelder in 2011.

Sam Amend (Andrew Walling, Belgrave) took second in 7:48:39, also a PB, with Caroline Turner running her first 100k in 7:51:39 for third spot.

Provisional Results