Weekend update

21.01.20

Houston was a happy hunting ground for a variety of reasons over the weekend. Steph Twell, Sarah Inglis and Stephen Scullion were all in personal best form over the Houston half marathon and full marathon. With the father/son duo of Andrew Leach and Matt Leach also setting new world standards that should see them added to Guinness book of records for a family world half marathon record.

Belfast man and St Mary's alumni, Stephen Scullion (handicap -4.3) overcame tough, windy conditions in Houston with 2:11:52 to post a top 5 finish in a gold label race that should see him join the marathon start line at the Tokyo Olympics. This was his third marathon in 15 weeks after a disappointing Doha and metronomical Dublin marathon performance where he ran his previous best time of 2:12:01 for second place in October.

Scottish duo of Steph Twell (handicap -2.6) and Sarah Inglis (handicap -1.8) were also in action in the Houston Half Marathon and returned healthy PB's of 68:54 and 70:22.

Turning back the clock was M55 Andrew Leach (handicap -1.5) who was a child champion in the 70's when he was a classmate to Richard Nerurkar at Bradford Grammar School. Along with his talented son, Matt Leach (handicap -5.2) they took the recently set a father/son world half marathon record with respective times of 71:10 and 62:55.

Eilish McColgan (handicap -3.2) continues her world tour with more victories, this time in Bermuda. This week she turned her attention to the Butterfield Front Street Mile. She won the race in 4:45.70 despite 67km/h gusts of wind and also won the Bermuda 10k the next day in 33:38.

At the BMC Cardiff Open in Cardiff, European Under-23 Championship 1500m silver medallist Piers Copeland (handicap -5.2) opened up his 800m season with a 1:49.80 clocking in Cardiff as he won the men’s race from Zak Curran (handicap -3.4).

World Under-20 Championship finalist Francesca Brint (handicap 1.7) opened her season with 800m success in the women’s race, stopping the clock in 2:11.42 for victory. There was also a good showing from George Mills (handicap -4.5) as he won the men’s 1500m in 3:44.68.

Adam Clarke (handicap -5.6), was in 7:59.42 form to win the 3000m.

Some of the bigger domestic events are listed below: