Distance Running News
11 June 2016
Cheltenham Harrier Anthony Bailey won the Bourton Hilly Half Marathon for the fourth consecutive year with an impressive performance. Bailey ran in a lead group of three win James Bolton (Woodstock) and Doug Wight (Almost Athletes) for the first seven miles before Bolton dropped off the pace just before the long climb up from Great Barrington. With the two mile climb completed Bailey pulled clear of Wight at around 9.5 miles on the steep descent through Great Rissington before extending his lead in the final miles. The veteran crossed the line victorious in 76:11 with Wight finishing 28 seconds later and Bolton a further 24 seconds adrift. Paul Wade was the second Cheltenham runner home in ninth place in 85:18, with Dave Rantell one place behind in 86:16 whilst Richard Birch recording 89:36 and Paul Barnes completing the course in 98:26.
There was a midweek multi-terrain win for Shona Crombie-Hicks at the Malvern 10k where she completed the challenging course in 41:55. Elliot Prince led the Harriers home in seventh place in 40:42 whilst James Wilkinson stopped the clock in 41:45 and Dave Hemmings crossed the line in 45:47. Mark James, meanwhile, finished second in the Bitton 5k road race in a time of 17:10. In the 3000m at the Gloucestershire Schools Championship in Cheltenham James Chantler-Mayne impressed with a 9:14.6 victory whilst there were personal bests for Jacob Pickering (9:32.6) and Ben Williams (9:38.1) in second and third respectively. Weekend parkruns saw Harriers on action at various locations around the country with Alex Lee winning yet another Cheltenham event in 16:39 as he finished exactly half a minute clear of teammate Marcus England who ran his fastest time on the Pittville Park Course. George Watson (19:30) and Dave Hemmings (20:39) before Tasmin Carpenter was the fourth lady home in a pb of 22:46. Megan Brinley ran her fastest time at the Newent event to finish fourth overall and as first lady in 20:13, a time that moved her up into second place in the all-time ranking list for the course. Further afield Phil Wylie won the Exeter Riverside parkrun in 15:49, Darren Jordan placed second at the Buckingham event in 17:08, Matt Evans finished third in Rotherham with 18:38 and Gavin McCaugherty’s 17:30 earned him fourth position at the Cannon Hill parkrun in Birmingham.