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Salisbury runners defend league standings at Alton 10mile

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With some of the club’s faster runners elsewhere, City of Salisbury took a reduced squad to the Alton 10mile but still produced some good performances to defend their standings in the Hampshire road race league.

Jonathan Croom was close to his best despite the hilly course, clocking 67min 12sec to lead home the men’s A team that currently tops division 2 just ahead of Farnham.

In support were Richard Larcombe in 75.20, Steve Mitchell 80.52 and Matthew Dyer 80.57.

Jane Whiteley had cause to celebrate when she found her 97.31 was good enough to head the women’s A team, with Denise von Roretz 106.34 and Kathryn Dreyer 109.07 completing the trio. Lesley Brown was close behind in 109.09.

The men’s B team comprised Stuart Robertson with 81.36 and he was followed by Jon Kershaw 82.16, Barry Vincent 84.22 and James Ballard 88.25.

Next league fixture is the Netley 10k on Sunday [20th] alongside Southampton Water.

In the Ox series of off-road events near Tollard Royal, James Mills produced a great win in the 53mile endurance race, timed at 7hours 56min 26sec just three minutes ahead of his nearest challenger.

Liz Roberts capped an 80mile weekend by recording her longest ever competitive run in the same event, with no less than 14 hours 8mins on the clock.

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John Gorham

John Gorham.jpg City of Salisbury clubmates and contemporaries will be very sorry to learn that John Gorham, a roadrunning member of many years’ standing, has died after a long and brave battle with cancer of the oesophagus.

With his wife Chrissy, John was a regular competitor at Hampshire road race league events, marathons and half marathons where he always wore the Salisbury vest with pride.

John was a member of the club committee for a number of years, his considered opinions on the club’s affairs always making him a helpful contributor.

Just last year, John and Chrissy ran in the London marathon to support the heartburn charity which funds research into this form of cancer:  John made it to the halfway point in good shape and Chrissy went on to finish the full distance. Since then she has gone on to run many more racing miles to raise more money for the cause.

The club sends its sincere condolences to Chrissy and the family.

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Bea Wood sets new 1500m standard

Bea Wood

With only three weeks’ track training in her legs, City of Salisbury’s exceptional young prospect Bea Wood set a new uner-15’s age-group club record for the 1500m in a British Milers’ fixture at Millfield School in Somerset.

After following a pacer for the first lap, and despite jostling that forced her to run wide for much of the distance, she clocked a time of 4min 30.4sec to clip two seconds off her previous best and go top of the national rankings.

Alex d’Arbost competed in the under 20’s for the first time and was only slightly below his best with 4:23.95.

In the British University Championships, Alex Mundell was timed at 2.21 in the 800m, her best so far this season.

On the road, Nick Hudson gave a clear demonstration of how hard work and dedication can produce results when he defied the bank holiday’s heatwave in the Milton Keynes marathon.

Running conservatively he rose to the 26.2mile challenge and still beat his previous best by two minutes to record 3hours 39min 26sec.
Richard Larcombe was not far back in 3.55.21.

Shane Wilkinson Photography

In the national event photography awards ceremony at the British Museum in London, club member Shane Wilkinson scooped top sports category award for his photo of Salisbury’s very youngest athletes enjoying the challenge of competition in fun-day sack racing on the Five Rivers track last autumn.
The same picture, well-liked by the judges for its exuberant tone, also earned runner-up placing overall.
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Medal Madness at Marlborough

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The City of Salisbury Athletics & Running Club’s (CoSARC) young athletes were in action on Sunday 29th April, when the U9s to U15s competed in a friendly event based on the Quad Kids format hosted by Marlborough & District Junior Athletics Club. Despite the cold weather there were some hot performances, with six medals won. The U11 boys managed a clean sweep with 1st going to Joey Holme, 2nd to Charlie Coles and 3rd to Jacob Earle. The U11 girls grabbed a joint 2nd place with Livvy Hewlett and the U13 boys took the final 2 medals with 1st going to Rory Glover and 3rd place going to Kieran McCullam.

Also on Sunday, two CoSARC runners headed to Chester for the Half Marathon. An undulating course with a couple of killer hills, Craig Weatherburn finished in 1:27:59 – a new personal best –while Denise von Roretz followed in a creditable 2:16:51.

A strong contingent of Salisbury runners headed down to Studland in Dorset for White Star Running’s Bad Cow weekend. This began with a ‘Frolic’ on the Saturday – a 12-hour event allowing runners to complete as many 4.4 mile laps as they wanted to within the time – and was followed by a marathon and half marathon on the Sunday. Charlotte Boardman was the first CoSARC runner home in the Marathon in 04:42:55 – fifth woman overall – followed by Chris Maple in 05:00:15 and then Elizabeth Roberts, Di Cross and Jane Knight, who ran together to finish in 06:22:06; Charlotte, Elizabeth and Di also ran six laps of the Frolic course on Saturday – equivalent to a marathon – to complete a weekend double, while Kathryn Dreyer and Jeanette Hardiman ran five laps. In the Half Marathon, Jackie Chlebowski finished in 02:45:36.

On Saturday, CoSARC’s Steven Mitchell headed the team that organised the Finsbury Challenge charity run, with many CoSARC members acting as volunteers. The event raised money for Winterbourne Earls Primary School and, this year, for national children’s mental health charity Place2Be. More than 220 children and adults took part in the 1k, 3k and 5k routes.

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Hassan beats the heat at London marathon

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James Hassan, 2:51

City of Salisbury running club’s James Hassan achieved what most of the 30,000 in Sunday’s London marathon found impossible. Not only did he overcome the day’s energy-sapping heat, going faster in the second half than the first, but he also improved his already quick personal best for 26.2miles.

With fine pace judgement, he clocked an excellent 2hours 51min 41sec on the event’s hottest day ever, when for many the challenge soon became simply to reach the finish.

James Mills was another to pace himself well, crossing the line in 3.07.59, and he was followed by Stuart Holloway 3.11.21, Ruth Thom 3.20.25, Reece Ingram 3.21.40, Mark Glanville 3.23.17, Andrew Holme 3.25.37, Kathy Dudman 3.28.41, Phil Smith 3.33.04, Jon Croom 3.34.28, Nick Cooke 3.34.55, Charlotte Ingram with a big PB of 3.37.26, Jo-Anne Gready 3.37.36, Craig Murphy 3.37.46, James Welsh 4.03.54, Gary Domoney 4.25.38, Gavin Barrett 4.27.30, Rob Drag 5.21.36 and Wendy Lucas 6.51.41.

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Charlotte Ingram
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Craig Murphy
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Wendy Lucas and James Hassan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before the start of the marathon, Bea Wood added further to her credentials with a superb win in the British Athletics 3 mile under 15’s road championships, finishing on the Mall in 16min 38sec that put her half a minute ahead of her nearest rival, and the same time as the under 17’s winner.

Also selected to run for the south west region, Lukas Bailey did well in the under 13’s to finish 15th in 17.03.

The Southampton marathon also baked in hot sun, but Mike White still improved his previous best with a great run of 3.18.53. Jason Bennett clocked 3.47.42, Chrissy Gorham 4.26.10 and Jo Marks 4.59.53.

In the half marathon, Nick Hudson was Salisbury’s best with 1hour 34min 15sec and he was followed by Ian Lawrence in 1.34.32, Richard Larcombe 1.42.32, Marc Hawkins 1.47.40, Michael Warren 1.58.30, Rachel Bala 1.59.43, and Fi Thatcher 2.25.37.

Quickest in the 10k at the same venue was Mel Holloway with 54min 58sec, than came Denise von Roretz 1.00.58, Ali Theobald 1.02.35, Sue Sheppard 1.19.28 and Vasen Moodley with a gallant 1.25.30.

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