Seven new entries in a day in the men's top 20 marathon rankings

There were many marathons taking place across Europe, this weekend, which has resulted in seven new entries in the top 20 of the men's marathon rankings in just one day!.

Josh Griffiths (handicap -5.2) elevated himself number two on the UK rankings with a 2:16:09 performance in the Dublin Marathon. Natasha Cockram (handicap 1.1) was impressive too with a 2:35:47 PB performance.

In the Frankfurt Marathon, Aaron Scott (handicap -3.6) clocked a PB of 2:16:57.Craig Ruddy (handicap -3.4) was also impressive with a time of 2:17:44. Matt Sharp (handicap -5.0) and Ryan Burling (handicap -4.2)  ran their first marathons' of the year and stopped the clock on 2:19:17 and 2:20:10 respectively. Steven Bayton (handicap -4.6) had run London in 2:22:53 earlier in the year and improved that by more than three minutes when he stopped the clock on 2:19:41 in Frankfurt and Michael Crawley improved his Edinburgh time of 2:24:43 by almost four minutes with a 2:20:53 clocking.

In the women's race, Dani Nimmock (handicap -0.3) clocked 2:38:54 with Amy Clements (handicap 0.2) just behind in 2:39:11. Katie White (handicap 0.6 ) and Kelly Crickmore (handicap 1.6) both ran PBs and stopped the clock on 2:40:31 and 2:42:34 respectively.

In just one day, we had seven new entries in the annual top 20 marathon rankings for men, which is pretty good going for the end of October! 

One of the toughest of this weekend's events was in Snowdonia. The event that takes place in Llanberis, North Wales has more than 2000ft of climb, so that extra hour in bed will have been appreciated by most! Russell Bentley (handicap -3.8) repeated his 2016 victory and won Snowdonia Marathon whilst Anna Bracegirdle (handicap 22.0) was the top woman.

The Northern Ireland and Ulster cross country championships enjoyed a glorious, sunny day in Antrim with wins for Connor Bradley (handicap -4.0) and Sinead Sweeney (handicap 3.8). U18 titles were won by Mia McCalmont and Conall McLean (handicap -2.4).

Further afield, an outstanding elite performances came from Callum Hawkins (handicap -6.6) (pictured) with a 61:00 Valencia Half Marathon performance behind the world record 58:18 winning performance from Kenyan, Abraham Kiptum.

Some of the biggest of the weekend events were: 

* Provisional results 

Well done to all of our improving runners over all distances and age groups!

See all rankings here (with age group options too) 

marathon rankings            - men

marathon rankings            - women