UK M40 marathon record-holder wins BMAF 5km title plus news of a historic beach race

British Masters 5km Championships, Battersea, December 3

Andrew Davies and Elizabeth Renondeau won the two main races on a cold and breezy morning in a busy park with the field occasionally coming into contact with marauding dogs.

Davies, who set a British M40 Marathon record of 2:14:20 in Seville this year, dominated winning the men’s race by 11 seconds even if his 15:01 time was relatively modest compared to his best 10km times of well under the half-hour.

Jack Nixon was next in, winning the M35 race by just two seconds from Scottish international Chris Loudon and both their times were PBs. British Masters Indoor 1500m champion Mike Cummings was close behind to take M35 bronze.

Dulwich Runners followed their recent British Masters M45 cross-country gold by taking a M45 clean sweep and team gold through Ade Russell, Andy Bond and Tom South with Russell gaining a rare win over Bond as he produced his first sub-16 as the trio were spread by just three seconds.

Even faster was the M50 winner Simon Baines who added a British title to his World Masters half-marathon crown with a clear victory in 15:43.

Andrew Leach, already the BMAF M55 cross-country champion, added another win with a 16:28 victory ahead of Ben Reynolds, who had been second less than 24 hours earlier in the Kent masters race.

Chris Cooke (17:22) and Jonathan Haynes (18:43) had clear wins in their respective M60 and M65 categories.

Renondeau, who ran a PB 2:42:04 marathon in Manchester, ran for England in the British and Irish Masters International but did much better here.

Niki Densley built up a big early lead but Renondeau closed along with former world masters indoor champion Zoe Doyle and then pushed on to win in 17:50 from fellow W40 Doyle.

Densley held on for third W40 just ahead of W35 champion Nicola Evans (18:08).

W45 winner Gina Gailbraith (18:36) and W50 champion Julie Backley (19:37) both won gold medals but finished behind W55 champion Clare Elms, who joins the next category up next year.

Elms, who, like Backley, ran the Kent Masters the previous afternoon, won in 18:27 added the 5km to the BMAF cross-country and three European Masters won this year and she was chased home by Anna Critchlow.

Ironically had the race came one day earlier Critchlow would have won W50 gold as it was her 55th birthday on race day!

Monica Williamson, who was third in the Masters International in Dublin, was a clear W60 winner in 19:22.

W65 Jo Quantrill (23:15), Hong Kong Olympic marathoner and W70 Yuko Gordon (22:09) and W75 Caroline Lavis (25:46) also won titles in a well supported women’s event.

The women’s race also included the older men’s age group races and track record-holder Dave Oxland won the M70 race in 19:34 while Pete Giles followed up his Dublin victory with another M75 success in 21:40 while Phil Brennan (24:46) won the M80 race and Tony Berry (35:54) was first M85.

Overall: 1 A Davies (Stock H, M40) 15:01; 2 J Nixon (St Ed, M35) 15:12; 3 C Loudon (Camb H, M35) 15:14; 4 M Cummings (Herne H, M35) 15:17

M40: 2 G Price (K&P) 15:41; 3 C Halsey 15:46

M45: 1 A Russell (Dulw) 15:56; 2 A Bond (Dulw) 15:57; 3 T South (Dulw) 15:59

M50: 1 S Baines 15:43; 2 J Prest (Traff) 16:07; 3 B Paviour (Herne H) 16:10; 4 S Major (S Lon) 16:36; 5 P Boyd-Leslie 16:42; 6 M Turner (Hale) 16:44; 7 G O’Brien (Swin) 16:46; 8 S Wright (Padd W) 16:54; 9 D Williams 16:56; 10 D Burbidge (High) 16:57; 11 J Gonzalez-Armas (26.2) 17:01; 12 D Gillett (S Lon) 17:11

M55: 1 A Leach (N Herts) 16:28; 2 B Reynolds (THH) 16:50; 3 T Booth (G&G) 17:00; 4 P Parry (B&W) 17:09; 5 M Tennyson (G&G) 17:31; 6 S Atkinson 17:37; 7 A Bloore 17:40; 8 J Ratcliffe (Herne H) 17:41; 9 S Snow (Unatt) 17:51

M60: 1 C Cooke 17:22; 2 R Metcalf 17:36; 3 P Reddaway 17:47; 4 M Stone 18:12; 5 S Corfield 18:14; 6 D Angell (Horsh J) 18:22; 7 M Boyle (Herne H) 18:33; 8 R Parkin (Der) 18:45; 9 R Beardsworth 18:48; 10 P Thomas 18:54; 11 P O’Connell (Horsh J) 19:03

M65: 1 J Haynes 18:43; 2 S Rolfe 19:37; 3 D Watson (Warr) 19:51; 4 T Arnup 19:55; 5 G Hymns 20:12

M70: 1 D Oxland (Notts) 19:34; 2 M Forder 19:58; 3 A Roberts 20:39; 4 P Kennedy (Lewes) 21:03

M75: 1 P Giles (HW) 21:40; 2 J Exley 22:39; 3 M Bruce 22:59; 4 A Haig 24:11

M80: 1 P Brennan 24:46; 2 M Conway 26:30; 3 D Moorekite 26:47

Women:
1 E Renondeau (Vale R, W40) 17:50; 2 Z Doyle (Wyc P, W40) 17:57; 3 N Densley (W40) 18:06

W35: 1 N Evans 18:08; 2 L Marlow 18:53; 3 J Roberts 19:09

W40: 4 L Rooney (King T) 18:23

W45: 1 G Galbraith (HW) 18:36; 2 N Sturzaker (Herne H) 18:59; 3 K Sung 19:05

W50: 1 J Backley 19:37; 2 K Harris 19:43; 3 H Davies (HW) 20:35; 4 M Jesson (Corby) 20:42

W55: 1 C Elms (Kent) 18:27; 2 A Critchlow (W4H) 18:40; 3 N McBride 19:44; 4 L Webb 20:50

W60: 1 M Williamson 19:22; 2 L Woolhouse (Vets) 20:46; 3 S Davies 21:02; 4 K Brooks 21:52; 5 C Helder 23:36

W65: 1 J Quantrill (S Lon) 23:16; 2 G Hueter 24:47; 3 A Riddell 25:05; 4 K Hancock (Serp) 25:07; 5 M Statham-Berry (Ling) 25:13.

W70: 1 Y Gordon (22:09; 2 R Tabor (Dulw) 26:13

W75: 1 C Lavis 25:46; 2 S Garner 27:41

Blyth Sands Handicap 5

First run in 1959, this race is a handicap event on the famous sands in the north-east of England with runners starting depending on their age and gender with W75 setting off first with senior women off 11 minutes later and senior men a further four minutes after that.

With strong winds and rough seas, the conditions, which vary immensely, were a long way from those when Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Mike McLeod won in 23:59 a second ahead of former winner David Gibbon, though full times were not available when the report was written – although Michael Parkinson won the men’s event and Stephanie Maclean-Dann the women’s race.

Men’s winner: M Parkinson

Women’s winner: Stephanie Maclean-Dann

FESTIVE 5, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, December 4

Overall:
1 A Patterson (FVS, M40) 26:34; 2 S Jackson (FVS, M40) 28:27; 3 T Burke (M40) 28:39

M50: 1 P Harvey (Gard CR) 29:55

M55: 1 H Soares 30:32

Women:
1 H Turner (Harp, W35) 31;51; 2 W Walsh (St Alb, W50) 33:23; 3 H Cartlidge (St Alb, W45) 34:0

GLASGOW MO RUN, Glasgow Green, November 27

Overall (HM):
1 J Sharp (M40) 72:30
2 N Phillips (U20W) 76:00
3 A Lloyd (Desflu) 77:53

Women:
1 Phillips 76:00
2 L Mckelvie (Fan-tash) 93:57
3 Z Gyorffy 1:41:35

W60: R Gallagher 1:46:22

Overall (10km):
1 S Rodney 34:39
2 G Corr-Macleod 35:07
3 S Cockburn 35:40

Women:
1 J Anderson 40:51
2 F Dalgaty (Deslur) 44:51
3 S Farrell (Desflur, W40) 46:03

NORTH LEWIS 10km, Ness, December 3

Overall (10km):

1 M Mitchell 32:43

2 J Hamilton (Storn) 34:36

3 H Maciver (Storn, M60) 36:47

Women:

1 S Macleod (Storn) 49:17

2 J Graham (Ness, W40) 50:12

3 J Macritchie (Ness, W40) 51:11

GIFFORDTOWN 5km, Fife, November 27

Overall:

1 J Phillips (Kil’k  U20) 15:16

2 C McGarrity (Shett) 15:22

3 M Mckelvie (Shett) 15:28

4 F Davies (Shett) 15:41

5 F Donnelly (Shett) 15:57

M60: 1 A Gibson (Fife) 18:55; 2 J Crookston (PHRC) 19:14; 3 H McKay (Fife) 19:45

M70: 1 T Martin (Fife) 19:35

U20: 2 J Lessels (Fife) 16:10

Women:

1 K Sandilands (Fife, U20) 18:25

2 R Van Rensburg (Fife, W50) 19:10

3 S King (Dund H) 19:13

W50: K Macpherson (Fife) 21:42

W60: M Martin (Fife) 23:27