• News
  • News Archive
  • RSS Feeds
• Mailing List Digest

Weekly Serpie round-up

ITU Aquathlon World Championships, 12 July

On Thursday 12th July Dein-Soren Laido and I competed at the Aquathlon World Championships in Middelfart, Denmark. After being selected to represent the Great Britain Age Group team for the first time I was really excited to see what I could do and Dein was equally excited to represent team Estonia. 

The event consisted of a 1km swim in the Baltic Sea followed by a 5km run and I finished in a time of 38:36 (swim 15:52, T1 1:19, run 21:25). My time placed me 6th in my age group and 3rd out of the British women in my age group which I was pleased with.

The swim was extremely challenging due to the fact that there were thousands of jellyfish in the water which no one was expecting! Everyone was covered in stings after the race and the mental challenge of swimming through swarms of jellyfish was immense. The run was tough in 31.5 degree heat and blistering sun but I pushed hard and was pleased to overtake quite a few women on the run to improve my overall position. Dein was also selected to be the flag bearer for Estonia during the opening ceremony which was very exciting. (Report & photo: Debbie Lowi)

Southern Athletics League, 14 July

More than 30 Serpies travelled to Luton on Saturday 14th July for our 4th match of the season. With our team in 6th position in the league, we wanted to try and win another match and see if we could re-open our chances of promotion. However, we knew it was going to be a tough match with the host club Luton and Woodford Green ahead of us in the league and competing in full strength. We fought all afternoon taking the lead on a few occasions, but never managing to build a comfortable gap, with the two other teams always within a handful of points. And we unfortunately closed the day in third place. Final results are:

• Luton AC 335
• Woodford Green & Essex Ladies 321
• Serpentine 309
• Ilford AC 169
• West Norfolk AC 79
• West Suffolk 58

Well done to all Serpies who contributed to an exciting afternoon and gave their best for the team. Special mention to our race winners: Andy Reeves, who celebrated his birthday with a great win in the 3000m steeplechase, and Tash Sheel in the women's 5000m; plus a few B string first places. Top scorers of the day were Ben Stanton for the men (16 points) and Rhiannon Needham (25) for the women.

Thanks also to our officials, who for once had to fight more with the sun (and lack of shelter) than the cold and the rain: Ian and Sally Hodge, Sammy Li and Daisy Gladstone scored 20 points for our team.

The next match will be our second home match: we will be at Battersea on Saturday 18th August and it would be great close the season with a win. More details to follow, but you can start to get in touch with the captains if you are keen in taking part. (Report: Nicola Barberis)

3000m club championship, 10 July

Five races were held at Paddington Track last week to decide the club 3000m champions. Congratulations to Martin O'Connell (9:00.2), Isabel Clark (9:50.2) and Christine Kennedy (96.5%), our men's, women's and age-graded champions. The women's race saw Izzy and Helen Gray head to head for five and a half laps before Izzy pulled away to win, whereas in the men's race Martin decided to try and time trial his way to a sub-9 result missing out by only 0.3 seconds. Christine's age-grading is truly world class! (Full 3000m results)

After three races in the Grand Prix series, Andrew Reeves and Helen Gray still lead the standings, with Andrew also in the lead age-graded. The current standings are available on the website in the club championship results section. The grand prix is a series of four shorter races (1k, 1 mile, 3000m, 5k) within the main club championships. All races count towards the overall championship but there are also trophies for the grand prix series winners as well. (Report: Ian Hodge; photo: Jack Wild)

Summer League 10k, 15 July

A good gang of Serpies made it to the blistering hot start line of Mornington Chasers’ Summer League fixture in Regent’s Park on Sunday. It was an excellent race filled with meandering tourists, excitable overheated dogs and children with much needed water guns - such fun. It was a Serpie (Hugh Torry) that crossed the line first and, equally as remarkably, others followed. The Tenderfoot was a roaring success, as were the relays - sprinting round 400m on a Sunday morning in the heat after a plateful of cake is commendable. Whilst mentioning cake, the picnic was abundant; MC did themselves proud in the bake off stakes, with lemon cake and a track cake worthy of special mention.... be ready to bring out your A games, Serpies, for our home fixture in Battersea Park on 5th August, both running and baking wise! The challenge(s) are on!! And if you can't or don't want to run or bake, come along anyway as we need volunteers to help put on the race. (Report: Fliss Berridge; photo: Blanche Armstrong) (Current League standings after 4 out of 5 fixtures, with Joost Vogel top of the men's leaderboard) 

British 10k, 15 July

The Serpie contingent at the hot British 10k were led home by Xavier Gruot with a road PB of 32:32, sparking wild celebrations on the Champs-Élysées. Or perhaps that was down to a certain football result on the same day? Either way, congrats from all of us at Serpie Towers! And well done to all Serpies who hot-footed it around central London on Sunday! (Serpie results)

Race to the Stones, 14 July

Charles Spelina was delighted to win the Race to the Stones 50km on Saturday in a time of 4:38 followed by sub 40 minutes in the British 10k on Sunday. The same day, Steve Kjar and Chris Woods completed the 100km version in 14:18:18, on what was a baking hot day for Chris's first 100km race. Congratulations all!

>>Your report here<<

Did you achieve a new personal best, compete in your first ever race, hit a milestone or especially enjoy a particular race? Then please get in touch. Whether you are a competitive athlete or take part for the sheer pleasure of it, everybody's contributions are welcome. Deadline: end of Monday; 130 words max. If you send photos, please ask for permission if you use somebody else's and confirm the source. 

Parkrun results for 14 July 2018 (54 runners)

Top 5 by time and age-graded performance

Podium Finishers

1st: Andy Greenleaf (Princes, Liverpool) - 15:53, Lauren Roe (Weymouth) - 18:59
2nd: Simon Barrett (Richmond) - 17:06, Matthew Hardcastle (Hilly Fields) - 18:08, Lavinia Singer (Tamar Trails) - 20:44, Megan Adams (Wormwood Scrubs) - 24:14
3rd: Martin Richardson (Bromley) - 18:12, Gideon Reid (Wormwood Scrubs) - 18:27, Megan Roberts (Lymington Woodside) - 20:05, Kelly Page (Kingston) - 22:24

Busiest parkruns (3+ Serpies)

Brockwell, Herne Hill (4), Wormwood Scrubs (4), Bushy (3), Finsbury (3), Fulham Palace (3), Wimbledon Common (3)

Full consolidated Serpentine results. Can't see yours? Updating your parkrun profile with Serpentine RC as your club should do the trick. (Results: Alex Jeffreys)

Serpentine results database

Check the results database on the club website for other performances not covered here. If your result is missing, you can add it yourself or, if the race isn't listed in the dropdown menu, contact the Results Elves at results@serpentine.org.uk. Even better, add your name to the Race & Event Planner in advance and name SERPENTINE as your club when you enter races to ensure your results can be more easily added to your profile.

With thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's edition!

Eda Korkmaz
communications@serpentine.org.uk

Submitted: 18 July 2018

Back