Road Running Report

06 November 2016

Graham Rush claimed a superb bronze medal in the England 10k Road Running Championship that was held within the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k. Rush was happy to sit in the large front group that went through the 4km in a relatively slow 12:10 with the opening half of the race run into the wind. The Dave Newport coached athlete hit the front at the turning point and injected some pace that saw the group fragment, before sitting back in again as a smaller group reformed. After Liverpool’s Jonny Mellor broke clear Rush pushed the pace on the pace to pull clear of Southend’s Adam Hickey and Derby’s Ben Connor. However, Hickey struck back in the final stages to take silver in 29:15, three seconds behind Mellor whilst Rush claimed his first national medal just one second later. Phil Wylie was the second Cheltenham runner home in nineteenth place in a pleasing 30:23 before Will New made it two personal bests in a month with an impressive 32:25 that took seventeen seconds from his previous best time. Alex Lee then recorded 33:11 and Liam Roarty lowered his PB to 33:26 whilst Matt Evans (37:47) and Lee Groenewegen (38:26) completed the Harriers squad.

There were race wins for Phil Beastall and Shona Crombie-Hicks as Chetenham Harriers provided the top two men and top two women at the Tewkesbury Guy Fawkes 5 mile road race. A fast opening mile saw Beastall pull clear of the field as John Parker and Honiton’s James Denne followed. Despite the strong breeze Beastall continued at an impressive pace to record a new PB of 25:30 before veteran Parker took second in a pleasing 26:23. The ladies race was always likely to be a closer race with the experience of Crombie-Hicks taking on the youth of seventeen year old Megg Brinley. The fast starting veteran opened up a lead in the first mile with Brinley then running the race a similar distance behind her training partner as Crombie-Hicks took the win in 30:14 by a ten second margin. Anthony Bailey was the fourth man home with 27:17 before Andy Prophett (28:54) and James Miller (29:38) finished seventh and ninth respectively. Dave Rantell (30:12) and Gareth Edwards (30:25) finished either side of Crombie-Hicks whilst Richard Birch (32:24), Dave Hemmings (33:31), Debbie Smith (36:21) and Ken Buckle (43:31) also contested the popular event.