District clubs make the national stage

The relays, held at Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, comprise four long legs covering 5.4 miles and eight shorter legs of three miles.

Men’s team captain Phil Gould made a great start on the opening long leg, clocking 28:59.

Lying 16th at the end of the first stage, excellent shorter legs by Phil McCorquodale (16:18) and Jim Sawle (16:59) left the team in 11th.

Kenilworth slipped to 15th after the second long leg by Matthew Kingston-Lee (31:03), but rose again to 11th following a superb short leg of 15:45 by Paul Andrew - believed to be a club record for the short leg.

Thereafter, the club flitted between tenth and 11th position and only faded in the closing stages to 14th, with a finishing time of 4:21:14.

Leamington C&AC also qualified for the nationals on April 14 after coming in 22nd.

First to run for Leamington was Jamie Langley, whose 19th place on the long first leg and time of 29:15 put him 33rd of the 148 long-leg finishers.

Tom Foulerton ran C&AC’s fastest short leg (16:34), with Charlie Eastaugh (17:58), Dave Potter (18:44), Chris Wood (34:08), Nick Tawney (17:44) Steve Hundal (17:49), Will Kirk-Wilson (33:16), Steven Roberts (18:59), Eoin O’Flynn (32:32), Craig Bower (17:52) and Matt Butler (17:27) completing the team for an overall finish time of 4:32:18.

The race was won by Bristol & West AC in 3:48:44.

Kenilworth leg times: Phil Gould (28:59); Phil McCorquodale (16:18); Jim Sawle (16:59); Matthew Kingston-Lee (31:03); Paul Andrew (15:45); Rich Simkiss (16:44); Stuart Hopkins (30:12); Phil Fusi (17:16); Pete Bryan (17:02); Martin Dorrill (31:47); Clive Pearce (18:13); Sigurd Assing (20:56).

The Masters’ Six Stage took place alongside the senior event, with Leamington coming home in 11th

Paul Caruana clocked a 35:24 long leg to start off the team in tenth place before handing over to Mike Denney who ran the fastest masters’ short leg of the day (19:05).

Bert Payne (22:13), Steve Webb (35:07), Graham Roberts (22:05) and Graham Garlick (19:15) made up the remainder of the team.

Kenilworth’s ladies’ team took part in the Midland Counties Women’s Six Stage Road Relays, held on the same course as the men’s relays, and comprising six three-mile legs.

The team, made up of Sarah Stein, Ros Matthews, Sally Hicks, Helen Neal, Samantha Calder and Pauline Dable ran well to complete the race in 2:21:48 and claim 32nd position.

On an ideal day for running, Kenilworth Runners’ Nick Benbow headed to Reading to take part in one of the country’s most popular half marathons.

Benbow ran his fastest half for 15 years, clocking 1:32:22 to finish 32nd in the M50 category and 935th out of 13,104 finishers.

David Pettifer and Tina Crow headed to Oakley on the outskirts of Bedford, to take part in the Bedford Harriers-hosted Oakley 20.

The Kenilworth duo, who were among many using the race as their last long run before the London Marathon, both ran well with Pettifer finishing in 2:30:19 and Crown producing a new 20-mile PB of 2:45:28.

Steve Wright managed 1:41:37 in the Forest of Dean Trials Half Marathon to finish 113th in his age category, while fellow Runner Tom Dable came home in 39:02 in the fifth round of the Centurion Grand Prix Series, a five-mile race held at Chelmsley Wood.

Spa Striders’ Jo Butler and Caroline Whitehouse travelled across Europe to take part in the Prague Half Marathon with Butler recording a PB of 1:39:41 and Whitehouse running at her Brighton Marathon target pace to come home in 1:47:11.

Five Striders took in the undulating Coniston 14 at the weekend.

Dawn Clark was the 11th lady (3rd F35) in a PB of 1:39:42 and was followed by Kate Evans (1:47:66, 7th F45), Sean Lonergan (1:57:43), Sandra Stokes (2:07:04) and Richard Brookes (2:07:08).

A record 195 finishers produced 66 personal bests at the 50th edition of the Leamington parkrun.

Among those was Elaine Sherwin who ran a dog-assisted 18:07 to break the ladies’ record and finish third overall.

Peter Hawkins was first home in 17:12, with Neville Chapman (17:48) second.

Leamington C&AC’s Susie Tawney was the second lady in 20:45, with Spa Striders’ Sue Cox (22:56) third.

Selected other finishers (Spa Striders unless stated): 28, Ian Taylor (21:23, PB); 60, Ruth Tennant (23:52, PB); 66, Tom Dable (Kenilworth Runners, 24:02, PB); 67, David Murray (24:03, PB); 68, Jude Baum (24:04, PB), 90, Adrian Clayton (25:45); 111, Gary Perkins (26:47, PB); 116, Emma Caplin (27:18); 136, Chris Garden (29:01, PB); 164, Ian Oliver (31:40, PB).

Coventry parkrun 111: 21, Dave Ramus (Kenilworth Runners, 20:28).

Brueton parkrun 89: 16, Colin Underhill (Kenilworth Runners 21:50).

Walsall Arboretum parkrun 4: 6, Glyn Clarke (Kenilworth Runners, 21:00).