Mini London Marathon 2009; Flora London Marathon

The club had superb representation at the Adidas Mini London Marathon on Sunday.The race incorporated the elite Regional race plus the London Boroughs race. Our athletes were extremely prominent in the teams representing our local boroughs of Waltham Forest and Redbridge. Our top performer, as so often since Christmas, was Ronnie Sparke, who won the very high-quality Regional Boys 15-17 race.

The Marathon itself yet again proved a killing field for dreams, though Ben Hope in particular reaped a positive result from his efforts.

The Regional and Boroughs races are run as one, with the results being separated out afterwards.

The Boys 15-17 race featured three of our top youngsters. But Ronnie Sparke, representing the East region, was not the only member of the 2009 Great Britain U20 Cross Country team to compete, his teammate Jonny Hay toeing the line too, as well as Wales' Dewi Griffiths and England's Paul Thompson. But Sparke got the better of everyone in a sprint finish to win the title won not many years back by Mo Farah. His time was 14.20. Representing London, Alex Cornwell was 16th in 14.53 and Omar Mansour 26th in 15.16.

In the Boroughs race, this earned Cornwell (Redbridge) an excellent 2nd place and Mansour (Waltham Forest) 4th. The triumphant Waltham Forest team also had Rob Meadows (11, 15.56) and Chris Sear (40, 16.51), while 6th-placed Redbridge had our members Darren Southcott (15, 16.20), Liam Blaikie (16, 16.11) and Lorcan Murphy (99, 17.54).

The Redbridge team that finished 9th in the Boroughs 15-17 Girls event was heavily WGEL-based. Our athletes were Becky Hewitt (19), Claudia Conway (25), Kate Stockings (49), Eleanor Flaherty (50) and Suna Yokes (123). Sidnie Sales, of the winning Havering team, was 52nd, while Chelsea Ives finished 192nd representing 17th-placed Waltham Forest.

Similarly the Redbridge team that finished runners-up in the Boroughs 13-14 Girls race also relied heavily on our young athletes. Holly Bedeau was 23rd, Amy Doyle 25th, Ellie Foster 26th and Georgina Ferrari 82nd. 

In the Boys 13-14 Boroughs race, James Stockings finished an excellent 8th for 14th-placed Redbridge, with young Sam Robinson 177th in the same team.

Flora London Marathon

With three potentially sub2.30 athletes on the Start line, there was some hope of the club winning team medals in the televised event. Of the three it was, ironically, the man with the least ideal preparation who fared best. Ben Hope aimed solely to "stick with Bertie Powell" and he ended up with a marginal PB of 2:29.08 for 47th place in the race. He ran very even splits after going through halfway in 73.45. Powell, on the other hand, felt dreadful from the start, reacted badly to the Lucozade he drank, and suffered from a headache and cramp. After going through halfway in the same group as Hope, he battled on gamely to clock 2:36.56.

Ewen Malloch went through halfway over a minute ahead of both, in 72.22, but thereafter a calf/achilles niggle rapidly became an injury until he was forced to pull out at 15 miles.

M45 Iain Cumming thus became our 3rd man home, frustratingly just outside his target sub3 hours time, in 3:02.11. Going through halfway in 1:25.56, Cumming lost most time in the last 3 miles but was nonetheless pleased with his run. M40 Paul Clarke went through halfway in 93.33, but then suffered and faded to clock 3:23.24.

W40 Sally Chapman (3:48.35) had a tremendous run given her circumstances. In the fortnight prior to the race she had been on antibiotics to combat an ear and throat infection, and then suffered a reaction to the antibiotics. After deciding to go ahead and race, she passed halfway in 1:45.40 but was "in a trance" from 18 miles and her last 6 miles were run at a painful 10 mins per mile pace. But she was thrilled to get around and enjoy the terrific atmosphere.

Adam Thorpe was next home, in a frustrating 4:00.11. His buildup had not been ideal but he was raising money for a charity which had helped his international cyclist father, so he was forced to run. He ran a sensible race, going through halfway in 1:54.28 but, like the vast majority, he struggled and lost time from 30K onwards.

Unusually, one of the club's top shot putters, Simon Fricker, tackled the event and was no doubt relieved that it was all over in 4:38.59, this after passing halfway in a fraction under 2 hours. And W45 Kandy Ferrari, the enthusiastic mum of our young athletes Lorenzo and Georgina, also bravely tackled the endurance challenge and finished in 4:51.23 after passing halfway in 2:17.53.

Other

Elsewhere, Matt Gunby finished runner-up in the British senior Elite Duathlon Champs in Loughborough. On the Run 10K- Bike 40K - Run 5K race, Gunby stayed with Olympic Triathlon 12th-placer Alistair Brownlee for 35K of the bike ride before capitulating and finishing 1' 18" down. Newham & Essex Beagles' Dave Mitchinson was 10th, a further 4 minutes down.

Daniel Agustus won the Richmond Park run in South London by around a minute, and Keith McShea ran 1hour 25mins in the Nice Half-Marathon.

Hywel Care is to be awarded his first Welsh road race vest in the Great Manchester 10K. This follows his long stage performance in last week's National 12-Stage Road Relay. Care won his first CC vest only weeks ago.