Herne Hill Harriers’ Stacey Ward and Chris Busaileh made stunning half-marathons debuts on Sunday, with Ward’s time placing her among the top dozen athletes over the distance in 2015.
Ward was the first female finisher and 23rd overall in a course record 75 minutes and 42 seconds at Fleet, which was almost a minute inside the previous course record. Busaileh, meanwhile, was 21st at Reading, posting a time of 67.09, and running a 10-mile best in the process.
Mohamed Mohamud capped off a fine weekend for Harriers as the 14-year-old finished fifth in the U15M race at the Schools International cross country in Dublin.
Behind Busaileh at Reading, Simon Coombes was eighth in the M40 category and 115th overall in 73.45, with Mohammed Ismail 138th in 75.01. Simon Messenger was also in half-marathon action in Lisbon, finishing seventh Briton in 82.57.
There were 10km personal bests for Jonny Muir (34.16 at Eastleigh) and Sean Fitzpatrick (34.40 at Lincoln). Fitzpatrick’s success came just three days after claiming his first Herne Hill club accolade in winning the one-hour championship track race at the club’s Tooting base. Fitzpatrick kicked clear from a chasing pack with a minute to go, covering 16,189 metres in the hour. Andrew Grigg and Louis Waterman-Evans were second and third respectively, with both also surpassing the psychological 16,000 metres. The female champion was Annes Stevens who had a strong finish to run 12,863 metres ahead of Jen Barraclough and Charlotte Maughn.
Lily Newton – who competes in the parkrun JW 11-14 category – ran impressively at Dulwich, clocking a personal best of 19.34 and finishing as second female.
Rob Edwards was the club’s leading representative in fifth in 17.32. Mohammed Ismail, meanwhile, was a winner at Brockwell Park in 17.34. Away from the road, Jonathan Cowie was eighth at the Hardmoors 55 ultramarathon.