HRRL Victory 5 and Ealing Mile Races
HRRL Victory 5
Twenty-one Farnham Runners travelled to Portsmouth for the Hampshire Road League Victory five mile race, held each year by City of Portsmouth Athletics club since 1946.
Due to continuing work on sea defences on the normal route, a different course was used for the second time, starting from Lakeside North Harbour and including an unsurfaced section, where the host club had done their best to get rid of puddles caused by recent rain. Strong wind had an impact on pace in some parts.
Farnham Runners put in some strong performances, eight gaining top ten age category placings among the 730 finishers.
No stranger to leading in the local club, James Clarke recorded an excellent 29 minutes 10 seconds for 44th place. Third in the M50 group was Matt Saker in 29:44, followed by 7th M50, Andrew Ellison, who had to settle for 31:50. Harvey Wickham in 32:17 completed the score for the A team and helped them top the Hampshire League Division Two on the day and on aggregate after four of the season’s twelve races.
The men’s B quartet of Ali Hardaway (33:18, 9th M55), John Phillips (33:43), Terry Copeland (34:07) and 3rd M60 Keith Marshall (34:06) gave a position of 12th in B Division One.
The men’s C team came 9th of 18 in their table and rose to 4th after the 4 events. They were Damian Probett (34:29), Chris Cramp (35:35), Steve Bailey with a faster chip time (35:21) and 4th M75 Douglas Blyth (47:17). This places Douglas 36th on the UK M75 5 mile table for 2018.
The ladies A squad rose up two places to 5th on the season’s top division table after placing 5th on the day. They were led in by Kayleigh Copeland in a fine 35:37.
Linda Tyler secured the top F55 prize with 37:24, while Eloise Stradling completed this team in 38:11.
First W65, Jane Georghiou who clocked 39:23 to go 10th on UK the F65 UK 5 mile 2018 table, led the B string. Anne Snelson in 40:02 and Kay Copeland, 4th F55, in 41:47 helped raise the overall position by three after coming 5th in B Division One at Portsmouth.
The ladies C team that came 10th, also helping to raise their aggregate score by three positions, comprised Clair Bailey (44:35), Jacquie Browne (53:44) and Alison Mungall (1:05:06).
Ealing Mile Races
Douglas Blyth has been putting some fine performances in the Ealing Mile races recently. His 8:23 in August puts him 13th M70 in the UK 2018 Mile list, while his 8:20 in October ranks him 8th M75 for the year.