Results round-up - May
With thanks to David Chalfen for writing this up, here's just some of the highlights from the few weeks. Well done to everyone involved.
For many, May has been about recovering from marathons and dipping back into 5k and 10ks. The exception, and a major club highlight, was Tony Payne placing 7th in the Riga Marathon on May 20th, running a very strong 2.20.54 in unhelpfully warm conditions. The particular scoop for Tony is that the new IAAF criteria mean that he is now qualified to run the IAAF World Championship in Doha this October and so he awaits the selection thumbs up from the Thailand Federation. Once again Tony proved his ability to manage hot weather marathons which will be hugely relevant if he toes the line in Doha.
The other club and indeed UK road racing focus was the very recent London Vitality 10k, once again the UKA Championships. Led home by Sir Mo Farah, who presumably had a more straightforward hotel arrangement on this foray, the sharp end of both men’s and women’s races was loaded, with Steph Twell storming home as first woman in sub 32 minutes. Leading the Serps charge with a road PB was Andy Greenleaf, placing 38th in 30.38 backed by a tightly knit trio of Jonathan Poole, his 31.32 one of very rare negative splits in the sharper end; Chris Oddy and Nico Besson both ran strong road PBs of 31.48 and Glenn Hughes is edging back to solid form, clocking 32.57. Hugh Torry led the club’s V40s with 34.13 and James Gillanders found 34.46 not even making the Top 250. Anna Hollingsworth’s 38.12 led the women home with Gen Huss notching up a PB 39.42.
Chris Oddy has been busy as he racked up a 32.03 in the Great Manchester 10k, placing 31st, and second place in a very hilly Yorkshire 5.9 miles 2 days later to errm check his recovery. Also at 10k, Anna Hollingsworth led the women’s field at the May edition of the Regent’s Park 10k, scoring a 37.54 PB. The Assembly League on 2nd May over a fast 3.5 mile route had a strong Serpie trio at the sharper end, notably 3rd placer Kit Grierson 18.02, chased by Simon Craddock 18.46 and Simon Morris 19.03.
An array of parkrun winners and/or strong times in recent weeks, including at Finsbury Park Joost Vogel 1st in 17.09; Simon Cradock 16.58 at Dulwich; Andy Greenleaf 16.00 at Wormwood Scrubs and Ben Tolputt 16.20 at Burgess Park; Hackney Marshes hosting Joost Vogel, 16.37, James Gillanders 16.38 and Jon Moscrop 17.10. Serpie parkrun winners taking the Pan UK aspect very seriously were Jonathan Poole winning in Lochend, East Lothian in 16.31 whilst Nic Barberis went very far west to win in Penrose Cornwall in 17.00. Standout age grading result too by Kevin Murray zipping to 18.58 at Gunnersbury.
Nick Torry has been keenly tending his garden this month, which in his case probably means he’s good for around 30 minutes for 10k as and when.
David Chalfen
ALSO - David has kindly spoken to Shaun Dixon who recorded this podcast recently - his section starts 16 minutes in and lasts for around 13 minutes https://www.letsgetrunning.co.uk/podcast/beth-pascall - well worth a listen if you're interested in David's story and his experiences as a Serpentine coach.
Tom Poynton
running@serpentine.org.uk
Submitted: 29 May 2019