Weekend update
There were fireworks in Poland from UK half marathon runners with many PBs on an overcast day at the World Half Marathon Championships. The Cheshire 10k saw Jess Judd record another fast time and Bedford hosted a quality marathon won by Andy Davies.
The World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia delivered fantastic racing that included a women’s-only world record from Peres Jepchirchir. The Kenyan set new world figures of 65:16. After passing 5k in 15:20 there were just three vying for the medals in the final 400m and Jepchiirchir had all the answers on the beach straight.
Ireland’s Ann Marie McGlynn (handicap -1.3) ran 33:29 through the 10k point and was rewarded with a fantastic PB and new Northern Ireland record of 71:40. Samantha Harrison (handicap -1.7) led home the GB&NI women’s team in 71:53 ahead of Becky Briggs (handicap 0.2) with 73:08. Clara Evans (handicap -1.4) ran 73:11.
Four of the GB&NI men's team set new PBs. Jake Smith (handicap -6.1), obliterated his best to run 60:31 for 18th place, after going through 10k in 28:25, and set a new Welsh record as he went third on the runbritain all time list behind Mo Farah (handicap -7.1) and Callum Hawkins (handicap -6.9).
Mohamud Aadan (handicap -5.7) ran 62:41 ahead of Kristian Jones (handicap -6.3) who ran 63:03, with Adam Craig (handicap -6.2) in 63:12 and Tom Evans (handicap -6.2) setting another PB of 63:14. Evans’ training partner, Loughborough based Kevin Seaward (handicap -4.8) ran a PB of 62:58, running for Ireland.
Back in the UK the Cheshire 10k at Arley Hall saw Jessica Judd (handicap -2.3) setting a quality benchmark for the winter with a 32:32 clocking ahead of Stockport based, Jip Vastenburg in 34:03 and Kirsty Longley (handicap 0.1) in 34:14.
Omar Ahmed (handicap -6.2) took the men’s victory in 29:24 ahead of the 29:36 from Chris Parr (handicap -5.0) who was just a second ahead of Alex Brown (handicap -4.5).
The Mallory Park 5k got saw Aimee Pratt (handicap -0.9) run a big PB of 15:54 leaving triathlete Sophie Coldwell (handicap 3.9) in second with 16:11 and Cloe Hubbard (handicap 0.4) with 16:13. Triathlete, Harry Leleu (handicap -3.7), took the men’s victory clocking of 14:07 to edge out Chris Perham (handicap -0.1) with 14:09 and ahead of Seb Anthony (handicap -3.9) in 14:21.
The Running Grand Prix at Bedford Autodrome saw classy marathon performances from both men and women's winners.
The men’s marathon winner was Welsh masters maestro Andy Davies (handicap -5.2) in an awesome 2:17:12, ahead of Paul Piper (handicap -3.0) with 2:24:26 and Chris Mason (handicap -2.4) in 2:25:36. The women’s marathon race saw Jo O'Regan (handicap 1.5) in PB form, with 2:41:31. Laura Boehm (handicap 1.5) was second in 2:45:29 and Becki Timmings (handicap 1.5) next in 2:49:19.
The Wansfell Uphill Only race saw some of the UKs best on show. The course is only 2.5k long but climbs 400m and the organisers say that “if you can get close to, your current time for 5k flat, that would be very good running!”.
Siblings, Jacob (handicap 2.4) and Scout Adkin (handicap 2.5) were winners in 13:53 and 15:50 respectively. Both will be looking forward to flat 5k PBs if the organisers predictions are correct. Chris Richards (handicap -3.5) was a distant runner up in 14:47 which is very close to his 14:48 flat 5k time from Armagh in February.
Spanish ultrarunner Kilian Jornet made his 10K debut at Hytteplanmila 10k, in Norway against a field that included Jakob and Filip Ingebrigtsen. Jornet ran an impressive 29:59, while Filip finished in in 29:03. Jakob ran 35:05, although he was reportedly on pacing duty for his brother.
UK runbritain rankings for endurance events and age groups
Other results from the weekend are on the following links: