Coulson and McLeod crowned British Half Marathon Champions
Ryan McLeod (handicap -5.3) and Jess Coulson (handicap -1.7) were crowned British half marathon champions at the Lloyds Cardiff Half Marathon on Sunday. The race, that was the fifth race in the runbritain Grand Prix, also doubled as the trials for the 2016 IAAF/Cardiff University world half marathon championships next March which will be held in the city for the first time.
Jess Coulson shined on her debut over the half marathon distance, impressively working her way through the field to finish just six seconds behind the winner Lenah Jerotich of Kenya in a time of 1:11.36 for third position. It was a fine personal best for the Stockport Harrier who won the European U23 Cross Country Championships title in 2012. The step up in distance did not faze the 25 year-old who won the domestic title for the first time. This was Jess’s first race in the Grand Prix, however, and so she is unlikely to feature in the final standings.
Jenny Spink (handicap -0.5) was a surprise second placed Brit, finishing fourth overall and running well inside the world half qualifying standard in a time of 1:13.01. The Bristol & West athlete saw a huge improvement in South Wales, improving her personal best by over a minute. She set her previous best on the same course in Cardiff in 2014. Rachel Felton (handicap -0.4) was third in the British Championships, placing fifth overall in 1:13.42. Rebecca Robinson (handicap -0.5) was the next British runner to cross the line in 1:14:02 followed by Faye Fullerton (handicap -1.0) in 1:14:06 and Michelle Ross-Cope (handicap -0.9) in 1:14:29.
Rachel Felton will now take top spot on the Grand Prix Leader Board with 991 points followed by Faye Fullerton with 982 points. Both have done four races. Michelle Ross-Cope now moves up into 4th and Jenny Spink into 5th. Both Michelle and Jenny have only done three races but have high points with 744 and 742 respectively.
In the men’s race, Uganda’s Ben Siwa was a commanding victor, winning by over a minute in 1:02.06.
Ryan McLeod regained his British half marathon title as he edged ahead of home favourite Dewi Griffiths (handicap -5.5), posting times inside the world half qualifying standard, 1:04.18 and 1:04.28 respectively. Tipton’s McLeod caught the Welshman in the closing miles to take sixth place overall with Griffiths in seventh.
Paul Martelletti (handicap -4.7) was the third Briton home in 1:04.55 to complete the British podium and finished ninth in the race overall. All three gained an extra 100 Grand Prix bonus points for sub 65 minute clockings.
This was only Ryan McLeod’s 3rd race in the series and so he is still outside of the top 20 but Dewi Griffiths moves from 7th to 2nd with three races under his belt and an outstanding 1243 points. Paul Martelletti stays in 3rd with all five races done and his best four totalling 1171. Dewi must surely be the favourite now for the top men’s individual prize of £2,000 as he would only need to finish 9th at the final race (the Age UK Leeds Abbey Dash 10k) to equal John Beattie’s current leading total.
We hope to bring you updated standings soon on this link:
http://www.runbritainrankings.com/grandprix/standings.aspx
Selection for the IAAF/Cardiff University world half marathon championships will be held in March next year and full details of the policy can be found on the British Athletics website here:
http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/world-class/2016-selection-policies/
Full results from the CardiffHalf Marathon 2015 can be found via the link: http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/race-results.php
For more information regarding the 2016 IAAF/Cardiff University World Half MarathonChampionships, follow the link. Find out more about the mass race in March next year as well and get involved with Cardiff 2016: http://www.cardiff2016.co.uk/