Good endurance results

There were some good endurance results from our athletes at the weekend.

On the roads, Matt Gunby is back close to his best, evidenced by his time of 30.02 in the Abbey Dash 10K in Leeds. Matt's best over this distance is 29.42. On Sunday his time was only good enough for 19th in what was one of the best races in the UK for many years in terms of strength of depth, with a mighty 102 men running sub-32 minutes. (Results) Does this indicate an upturn in UK endurance running standards?

U20 Jess Burgess chose to run the Essex League CC at Chelmsford on Saturday, which was being used as a selection race for the county team contesting the SE Counties CC Champs next month. Most of the county's athletes represent clubs which compete in the Essex League, and Jess wished to catch the selector's eye. She did so in fine style, being 1st U20 home. A measure of the quality of her run was that she beat Georgia Tuckfield by 30 seconds - a fine athlete who has finished 16th and 20th in the first two Met League races.

At the London CC Championships, new 2nd claim member Suzanne Turvey ran well for 18th in a field of 187 finishers. W45 Jenny Thomas was 75th and W50 Karen Balcombe was 128th. In the men's race, Angus Holford finished a useful 25th in a field of 348. M40 Jim Roche was a minute behind in 39th, with M45 Richard Hogg in 227 and Andy Smith 309.

Tom Beedell, meanwhile, won 2 races at the weekend. On Saturday he was well clear of the field in the Chelmsford parkrun, clocking a nippy 15.47. On Sunday he raced the multi-terrain Herbert's Hole Challenge 10K in Chesham, and raced out a sprint finish with Highgate's Ryan McKinlay (who races for us on the track during the summer) - it was judged to be a tie. Tom's brother Simon Beedell was 4th, around 2' 35" back.