Marathon Roundup + Outdoor Season Begins

04 April 2022

With the cross country and indoor season finishing just moments ago it's incredible to see the first outdoor track record of the year already fall. Kiya Dee wasted no time after her incredible cross country season that saw her win English U17 Championship bronze and run for England at the Home Countries International to dismantle her 4th club record. Competing at the Windsor Open event Dee took on the 2000m steeplechase for the first time. Dee demonstrated her incredible hurdling ability pulling slightly ahead of the 2021 English Schools Steeplechase Champion, Rachel Clutterbuck. Despite Clutterbuck eventually taking the win, Dee held on to finish in 7:06.61, destroying the previous club record by 1minute 45 seconds! With the season just getting started, who knows how much quicker Dee can go.

Over at the Yate Open Sulaiman Ouiles opened his outdoor season with a 3.61 clearance in the pole vault, an impressive 31cm higher than his 2021 season opener. Isobel Burfitt made the perfect start to her outdoor season adding 10cm to her previous long jump PB with a best of 4.42. At the Swindon Open Isobel Watt and Sam Wilson opened their outdoor seasons. Watt came 2nd in her 1000m heat running 3:24.70 and Wilson was 2nd in his 3000m in 9:55.40. 

Some brilliant marathon results came in on Sunday beginning with Sophie Bestwick running an amazing PB of 3:25.42 at the Paris Marathon. The Manchester marathon saw Martin Foster run under 3 hours for the second time with a fantastic time of 2:57.41 And Joe Chan knocked 9 minutes off his previous marathon times running 3:10.06! Finally, at the Goodwood marathon Ashley Stevens battled round 11 laps to take over half an hour off his previous PB running 3:17.20.

Earlier in the weekend Leah Hopton placed 68th and 13th female at the Severn Bridge 5 mile race, a brilliant run saw her finish in a time of 39:14.