Posted By Joe on April 10, 2012

Photo: Bryan Mills

Slightly later than planned, our roundup of action from last week, including wins for Bristol&West and Westbury at the Midland Road Relays, and Liverpool and Rotherham at the Northern Road Relays. Andy Vernon ran a fast road 5k in Carlsbad, and a marshal mix-up led to 4 Brits going off course in Reading.

At the Mizuno Reading Half marathon, Bedford & County’s Darren Deed finished as top Brit in 12^th place to take an early lead in the runbritain rankings with a time of 65:47. However, a small group including the four leading Brits, Jon Pepper, Chris Powner, Jonathan Thewlis and Andy Norman, took a wrong turn at an unmarshalled corner and thus forfeited their shot at the prizemoney. Pepper (68:26) and Powner (68:28) can feel especially aggrieved, as they ended up finishing in 16^th and 17^th respectively. The men’s race was won by Kenyan athlete Edwin Kipyego, last year’s runner up, in 63:08. The women’s race went to Alice Mogire in a time of 71:01, whilst Justina Heslop finished best of the british athletes in a time of 73:57 to place third. Full results can be found here.

A high quality field raced over 5k on the roads at the Carlsbad 5k on Sunday. Great Britain’s Julia Bleasdale, 2011 Aviva World Trials and UK Championships 5000m winner, ran 15:47 to finish 6^th overall and leading European, whilst Andy Vernon finished 9^th in a very quick men’s field to record a time of 13:40. In a race won by Dejen Gebremeskel in 13:11, Irishman Alistair Cragg also set a European record 13:26 in 5^th. Results can be found here.

Liverpool Harriers, led by fastest long leg runner Jonny Mellor, won the Northern Men’s 12-stage Road Relays at the weekend, beating Salford Harriers and Morpeth Harriers. Sale’s Niall Brooks ran the fastest short stage of the day. In the women’s 6 stage event, Rotherham Harriers won from Wakefield District Harriers and Salford Harriers, who picked up medals in both the Men’s and Women’s event. The fastest leg of the day went to Stockport Harrier Elle Baker. Results from the Men’s race can be found here, and the Women’s race here.

At the Midland Road Relay Championships, Bristol & West ran away with the Men’s 12-stage title to win by almost 3 minutes from Tipton Harriers and Birchfield Harriers, as Philip Wylie ran the fastest long leg of the day. Severn’s Tim Dalton ran the fastest short leg of the day with a swift 14:31 clocking. The Women’s 6-stage event was won by Westbury, beating out Birchfield and Bristol & West, for whom Annabel Gummow running the fastest leg of the day in 15:50. Men’s results can be found here, whilst Women’s can be found here.

Central AC won both the Men’s 6-stage and the Women’s 4-Stage events at the Scottish Road Relay Championships. In the Men’s race, led by the day’s fastest short stage runner, Robert Russell, they best Shettleston Harriers and Ronhill Cambuslang to take the title as Inverclyde’s Derek Hawkins ran the fastest long leg of the day. In the women’s race, they best Edinburgh AC and Fife AC to the title, as Lyndsay Morrison ran the fastest time of the day in 17:42. Full results can be found here.

In the USA, Chris Gowell showed a return to form with an 800m/1mile double, winning the mile in 4:01.1 and finishing 5^th in the 800m in 1:49.8. Ruth Senior and Natalie Gray ran 4:38.3 and 4:39.0 over 1500m at the same meet. Lee Carey ran a 14:08.7 5000m at the Raleigh Relays, and Toby Ulm ran 53.03 in Maryland for the 400m hurdles. For a full round-up of action from th NCAA, visit trackboundUSA here.

Categories: blog, features, Week in Review
Tags: Alice Mogire, Andy Vernon, Annabel Gummow, Bristol & West, Carlsbad 5k, Central AC, Chris Gowell, Darren Deed, Derek Hawkins. Robrt Russell, Elle Baker, Jonny Mellor, Julia Bleasdale, Lee Carey, Liverpool Harriers, Lyndsay Morrison, Niall Brooks, Northern Road Relay Championships, Philip Wylie, Reading Half Marathon, Rotherham Harriers, Scottish Road Relays, Tim alton, Westbury