23 June 2009

The 25th running of the IAU World and European 100km  championships  took place at the “Night of Flanders” race at Torhout, Belgium on 19th June. In the Aviva GB and NI team, current UK 100km champion Heather Foundling-Hawker(Honiton road runners ) a previous top ten finisher in the event in Korea in 2006 was joined by the Scottish 100km champion Sandra Bowers (Winchester), making her international debut.

Over 300 athletes from 28 countries set off at 8pm to run through the night. By the end of the third of five 20km laps at 60km,  Foundling-Hawker  was running very well and had moved up  inside the top ten just ahead of Ireland’s Helena Crossan. Bowers after a promising start was going through a bad patch with severe stomach problems.

Foundling- Hawker faded over the last lap but still finished a creditable 16th(10th in Europe)in 8 hours 36 min 21 secs. Bowers after her mid race problems recovered well to finish strongly over the last 30km to still dip under the 9hour mark in 24th place (15th in Europe)

Final Results 100k World Cup Individual Torhout 2009

MEN

1 Yasukazu Miyazato JPN 06:40:43;2 Jonas Buud SWE 06:41:49; 3 Giorgio Calcaterra ITA 06:42:04

WOMEN

1 Kami.Semick USA 07:37:23: 2 Irina Vishnevskaya RUS 07:46:25; 3 MonicaCarlin ITA 07:53:57.. 6 Helena Crossan (Ire) 8.04.39   ……16 Heather Foundling-Hawker (GB) 8.36.21; 24 Sandra Bowers (GB)  8.58.12

Full results www.IAU.org.tw