20th March 2017
Weekend Update
NYC Half Marathon, New York, USA, 19 March
Callum Hawkins (coach: Robert Hawkins) continued his rich vein of form with a second place finish in New York, just eight seconds down on the 60.00 Scottish record he recorded in Tokyo last month.
Forcing the pace, the gutsy Scot did his upmost to shake off Olympic marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa, but in the end the Ethiopian produced the better closing speed to prevail by four seconds in 60.04.
Further back, there was a half marathon personal best of 62.23 for Jonny Mellor (Steve Vernon) in tenth place, whilst his training partner Ross Millington (Vernon) was just one place and 17 seconds further back on his debut over the 13.1 mile distance (62.40).
Vitality Reading Half Marathon, Reading, 19 March
Andy Vernon and Charlotte Purdue (both Nic Bideau) took the spoils in Reading with strong half marathon performances, both moving to second on the Power of 10 rankings for 2017.
After surging at 10 miles to break clear of the field, Vernon kept pouring on the pace, eventually breaking the course record with his 63.08 posting. In second place was his AFD teammate Chris Thompson (Mark Rowland) who ran a solid 63.39 as he builds up for the Virgin London Marathon, whilst third place went to Welshman Dewi Griffiths (Kevin Evans) in 63.54, just outside his personal best.
In the women’s race Purdue was also a clear winner, with her 72.15 winning time not far outside her personal best of 71.43 set back in 2014. Her performance brought her home well clear of runner-up Gemma Steel (Rob Denmark) and third placer Katrina Wooton (Harvey Rose) who posted times of 73.37 and 74.18 respectively.
Results: http://www.readinghalfmarathon.com/race-info/2017-results.htm
Lugano Trophy, Lugano, Switzerland, 19 March
Tom Bosworth (Andi Drake) produced the third quickest 20km performance of his career, still the quicker than any other Briton in history, to finish second at this international walking event in Switzerland.
Recording a time of 1.21.53 Bosworth got the better of World Champion Miguel Angel Lopez as the Spaniard finished third. Notably, World Junior champion Callum Wilkinson (Mick Graham) made his debut at the distance, where he finished eighth in a British U23 record of 1.23.47. Also noteworthy was the fact that both men went inside the London 2017 World Championship qualifying mark.
Results: https://www.endu.net/events/lugano-trophy-memorial-mario-albisetti#/results
English Schools’ Cross Country Championships, Norwich, 18 March
Ben Dijkstra (Alan Maddocks) was victorious in the senior boy’s race at his final English Schools Cross Country Championships, going one better than his second place finish at the English National last month.
In the girl’s equivalent, Khahisa Mhlanga got the better of her training partner and Essex teammate Jodie Judd (both Mick Judd) to take the title.
Zakariya Mahammed and Olivia Mason (Graeme Mason) took top spot in the intermediate boy’s and girl’s races respectively.
Results: http://powerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=181319&top=5000
Podium 5k, Barrowford, Saturday 18 March
Rosie Clarke (Dave Harmer) was the first women home in this mixed 5km road race, clocking an impressive 15.45 time on her debut run over the distance. Not far behind, 1500m track specialist Melissa Courtney (Mark Pauley) also posted a personal best with 15.58.
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