Battersea, Bath and Barcelona all featured in a busy March weekend of road racing alongside Leicester, plus Liverpool for cross country, and Sutton for the Surrey Indoors.
The latest Friday Under the Lights 5K at Battersea was a veritable PB bonanza for Club members, with Men’s captain Danny Shaw leading the way with his 14:36 PB clocking. There were PBs also for Ollie Mills 14:48, Fabien Whitelock 15:05, Thomas Patterson 15:15, Charlie Wood 15:17, Ryan Hickey 15:17, Ioan Jenkins 15:26 and, smashing 18 for the first time, Soraya Lockwood 17:59. It was great to see Lewis Laylee racing well again with a 14:54 clocking, and there were strong runs from Harry Roberts 15:36, M40 Jack Brotchie 15:39, M45 Raj Paranandi 16:05, Margaret Coogan 17:17 and Cali Brennan 18:24.
Continuing the 5K theme at the SportsShoes Podium Classic in Leicester, Arlo Ludewick ran a 14:05 PB, and Sophie Tooley was just outside hers with 16:36 in windy weather.
The wind was also in strong evidence at the Bath Half Marathon, which incorporated the British Champs and the GB trial for the World Half Marathon Champs. On a very blowy day and a course that included a few climbs, recent new member Ollie Sweett set a superb PB with a 70:26 clocking.
From the elite women’s start we had 2 HHH in the top 10. Lucy Jones was a very good 6th in the women’s trial race in 72:57, and Molly Smith was 9th with a PB of 74:18.
James Nutt smashed his Marathon PB by around 7 minutes in Barcelona, 2:28:23, as did Liam Burthem with his 2:31:57.
At the English Schools Cross Country Championships, the Club was very well represented across the age groups. Two of our athletes featured in the London Schools Intermediate Boys winning team, James Clement-Nash 34th and Luca Boulton 72nd, whilst Skyla O’Brien 49th and Marie Scriven 79th were both members of the London Schools Junior Girls bronze medal winning team.
In Sutton, we had the Club’s most successful Surrey County Indoor Championships for sometime, with 11 golds, 7 silvers and 3 bronzes. There were 60m wins for U18 Princess Okoma, U20 Lily Rose Brown and U20 Rikaion Smith. Maalik Adamson won the U20 Long Jump, and there were double golds for U16 Sasha Nolan in the 60m Hurdles and Long Jump, U18 Jasmine Nkoso in the Shot Put and 60m Hurdles, and U20 Kazia Asiedu Boafa in the Long Jump and 60m Hurdles. U16 Ayobami Blessed Awolope also won the High Jump.
Keith Newton