Gareth King makes top 10 at World 100k Championships in Berlin
The Great Britain and Northern Ireland teams secured fabulous fifth places in both men’s and women’s competitions at the IAU 100km World Championships in Berlin, Germany. A key highlight was the individual 9th position achieved by Gareth King who set a new Northern Ireland national record.
Northern Ireland’s Gareth King (handicap -1.9) was the highest finisher in the men’s team as he paced himself consistently well and coming through from 25th position in the first half of the race with metronomic laps through the event to the final two laps.
He ended the 100km in ninth overall with a time of 6:32:05 seconds to go 4th on the UK all time list, while also setting a new Northern Ireland record. That is 2:24 pace for the marathon over 62 miles! Gareth had initially planned to make use of the Ulster University heat chamber in preparation, via his advisors and support team of Bashir Hussain, Kim Shatwell and Tom Reynolds at AthleticsNI. With summer repairs making the heat chamber unavailable King instead utilised additional layers to assimilate the potential warmer conditions in Berlin. He maintained a similar preparation that had got him to 4th place in the Perth 100k trial race in April and with an almost flawless preparation, executed a well paced world class performance to lead the GB & NI team to 5th place in the World Championship event.
Trial winner Matt Dickinson (handicap -2.7) was 26th place with a time of 6:51:46. Ollie Garrod (handicap -4.4) was the third counter for the GB & NI squad as he came home in 36th with a time of 7:03:16.
The GB & NI men’s team finished fifth overall in a combined time of 20:27:07 with Japan, France and South Africa the top three teams. Japan took top two positions in the race with Haruki Okayama winning in 6:12:10, five minutes ahead of his compatriot Jumpei Yamaguchi.
In the women’s contest, Jo Murphy (handicap 7.6) produced her best time over the 100km distance as she claimed 14th position in a time of 7:38:10. Her previous best was 7:41:12 set at the Anglo Celtic Plate Home Countries race earlier this year.
Just seven minutes further back was Caroline Turner (handicap 4.3) who ended the race in 15th with a time of 7:45:42. Amy Sarkies (handicap 4.3) also improved her PB as she crossed the line in 21st, dipping under the eight-hour barrier in 7:55:14.
The GB & NI women’s team finished fifth overall in a combined time of 23:19:06 with USA, France and Japan claiming the team podium positions. France’s Floriane Hot won the race overall in a time of 7:04:03.
Unfortunately, Sam Amend (handicap 2.5) and Jason Kelly (handicap -3.1) did not finish in the women’s and men’s competitions respectively.