Distance Running News, 21-26 August

27 August 2018

Martin Ford added another gold medal to his vast collection as he won the British Masters V75 5000m Championship in Birmingham. Having celebrated his 75^th birthday just two weeks prior to the race, the evergreen Ford was making his debut in the new age group after spending most of 2018 recovering from surgery to overcome persistent injury problems. The Cheltenham athlete had company from the younger V70 athletes throughout the race, but he finished over two minutes clear of his fellow V75s with an impressive time of 20:56.73. Not only did this time earn Ford fifth place on the UK all -time V75 ranking lists, but it was over half a minute quicker than he ran in last month’s Midsummer Open Meeting. The European V70 record holder (18:33.85) will now finalise his preparations for next month’s World Masters Championships in Malaga.

On the roads Alex Bampton finished fourth in the Avon Valley Runners Westbury 5k in a time of 15:27 as the Bristol trio of Jack Bancroft (15:02), Owain Jones (15:11) and Kurt Taylor (15:15) filled the top three places. Fellow Harrier Nick Brown recorded 17:18 for sixteenth position. The weekend saw Jon Barnes battle against the elements at the Severn Bridge Half Marathon to finish fourth in 75:57, just 26 seconds behind third placed Richard Jackson-Hookins of Les Croupiers. Exeter’s Robert Mann (70:45) and Taunton’s Adam Stokes (71:58) dominated the event that saw runners cross the famous motorway bridge into England before crossing it for a second time to return to Wales. Meanwhile at the Headington 5 mile road race Andrew Kaighin hit the comeback trail with a 29:29 clocking to finish in thirtieth position.

Further afield Matt Lambourne contested the Sessay Swift 6k in Yorkshire for the third consecutive year where he ran well to claim a top ten finish. After passing through 5km in just under 18 minutes, Lambourne went on to set a personal best of 21:37 for the unusual distance. Many Harriers again made good use of weekend parkruns, with Ben Price (16:58) finishing first at the Trelissick event in Cornwall and James Denne (16:50) making a welcome return to action with sixth place in Exmouth. At the Cheltenham parkrun in Pittville Park James Bingham (16:55) continued to lower his times with a second placed finish and Joe Willgoss (17:34) set a PB in fourth. Teammates Doug Wight (17:46) and Dan Minors (18:01) placed fifth and seventh respectively before Dave Rantell (18:46), Oscar Godden (19:57) and Mike Ede (20:33) followed them home. Matt Lambourne (18:07) meanwhile posted his fastest parkrun time for three years at Heslington event in York.