Weekend update
This weekend’s top performance came from Eilish McColgan who maintained her position at the top of the runbritain Ladder with an improved UK road best for 5k in Spain. There were also final pushes for marathon standards at the Wrexham Elite Marathon and impressive times in the USA from athletes dropping from their altitude bases.
At the Asics Meta time trials, in Malaga, elite runners ran in the new Asics carbon plated running shoes over their preferred distances of 5km, 10km or half-marathon.
Eilish McColgan (handicap -3.8) showed top class form over 5k as she ran a British and European record of 14:44 to win. In fifth place, Charlotte Arter (handicap -1.7) posted 15:43. Eilish currently sits at the top of the runbritain ladder in joint first with Jess Piasecki but, with her handicap score now .2 lower, she puts herself firmly at the top.
In the Half Marathon Natasha Cockram (handicap -1.8) ran an impressive 71:30.
At the Oregon Relays, Tom Anderson (handicap -5.5) set a new PB of 13:28.07 over 5000m ahead of Charles Wheeler (handicap -5.2) who ran 13:43.42 and Rory Leonard (handicap -5.3) who ran 13:52.78. Zak Seddon (handicap -5.0) ran 8:26.45 in the 3000m steeplechase which was inside the European Championship qualifying time. James Gormley (handicap -3.5) set a PB of 3:41.51 in the 1500m and also ran 1:50.93 for 800m on the same day. James’ distinguished Oregon teammate James West (handicap -5.5) ran 3:43.04 in the 1500m.
The Wrexham Elite Marathon followed the original planned course and saw Hugh Armstrong, from Ireland, pace himself to a marathon qualifying time for the European Championships. Omar Ahmed (handicap -5.8) and Stephen Scullion (handicap -5.9) were in contention for the win, early on, but fell off their respective targets. Armstrong took the victory in 2:14:04 to break the ‘Welsh All Comers’ record that had stood since 1963. Calum Johnson (handicap -6.4) finished second in 2:17:46 with Cheshire master (M40), John Gilbert (handicap -5.3) coming third in 2:20:55.
Chelsea Baker (handicap 3.1) was the women’s Wrexham marathon winner in 2:46:53 ahead of Sarah Hunter (handicap -5.5) in 2:50:57.
The women’s half marathon proved to be a higher quality event with Fionnuala Ross (handicap 0.1) winning outright in a PB of 74:15 from Mollie Williams’ (handicap 0.0) 74:25. Catherine Whoriskey (handicap 0.3) was top master and third woman in a PB of 76:07.
Victoria Kenny (handicap 1.7) was the women’s winner at the Vienna City Half Marathon with 76:16.
The Centurion Track 100 mile event offered official splits en route to the full distance. The top performance of the day came from Lithuanian, Aleksandr Sorok who ran 100km in 6:05:40 to set a new world record, running at an average of 5.53 minutes per mile pace for 62 miles.
Samantha Amend (handicap 2.4) improved the UK best with 14:10:41, setting many other records in the process – a new course record by 24 minutes as well as 50 mile M40 and a European 12hr record. And this was only 3 weeks after her 100k PB in Perth!
The men’s 100 mile winner was Alexander Whearity (handicap 0.1) who completed his mission in 12:42:04 ahead of Michael Stocks (handicap 11.9) who covered the distance in 13:41:19.
Lauren Heyes (handicap -1.1) and Samuel Moakes (handicap -5.2) ran the fastest parkrun times in the UK over the weekend in Warrington and Long Eaton with Moakes hitting 14:40 and Heyes lodging a very respectable 16:28.
UK runbritain rankings for endurance events and age groups
Other results from the weekend are on the following links: