Results round-up - December
Many thanks to David Chalfen for writing this, and congratulations to everyone involved.
Tidying up the end of October, on 26th Jonathan Poole won Gunnersbury parkrun 15.52, fastest Serpie on the day by 90 seconds. Jeremy Agnew, now 44, ran a very fine marathon PB at Frankfurt, clocking a PB of 2.40.02, leading home the red-and-golds.
A week later brought a strong debut marathon by seasoned Cross and Track man Nathan Wilkins, cracking out 2.33.10 on the tough New York City course on 3rd November. Just ahead of Andrea Fraquelli whose impressive 2.33.47 means his last three years' NYC marathons range over just 17 seconds. Both can aim to be sub 2.30 on less tricky courses, with Nathan’s run being the fourth fastest marathon debut in Serpie history (You will all be enticed by this point, took a lot of research to check it out.).
Standout at the North London XC at Wormwood Scrubs was Glen Hughes returning towards solid form with 2nd place over the 8k course.
Next weekend, at the Met League, the obvious standout was Callan Moody, winning the men’s race from the usual tight leading group – one of a tiny number of Met wins in the club’s history. In the women’s race, Katie Williams ran very well to place 14th with Tash Sheel in touch in 22nd place. Both Senior A teams were somewhat depleted. Fine progress too in the Under 17s with Jonah Kramer taking 3rd place.
Move on a week and at the London XC Tash Sheel had a strong run, leading the women home in 17th place. The men’s leading runners packed tightly between 26th and 32nd, with the quartet of Juan Prias, Joost Vogel, Hugh Torry and Ben Tolputt placing a competitive fifth team, with newcomer Noe Moenrig just behind them and ditto long termer Miguel Branco. Five Euro nations’ citizens in our leading six, or six if you give the Torrys their own nation status. Kevin Murray zipped round the Gosport Half the next day in 84.26, mighty V60 pace. Meanwhile at the Victoria Park Half Kit Grierson notched a PB of 75.05, placing 7th.
On November 23rd the biggest race was the UK Cross Challenge and as it was the trial for the Euro Cross Champs 2 weeks hence, the field was a who’s who of UK distance running. Nick Torry placed first V40 with a strong 38th place, just over a minute behind the Seniors selected for Team GB, and nine places further back was chased by Callan Moody. Leading Serpie parkrunners that morning were Jonathan Poole winning at Gunnersbury in 15.50, Ben Tolputt 3rd in 16.20 at Burgess Park and a further win at Hackney Marshes for Isaac Leigh in 17.10.
Submitted: 26 November 2019