City of Salisbury runners ranged from the Isle of Wight to Inverness in search of competition at the weekend.
In Bournemouth’s festival of running, Samantha Hibdige made her debut at the 26.2mile marathon distance and despite windy conditions clocked a creditable 3hours 38min 18sec.
She was followed by Lee Syrett in 3:18:48, Phil Perry in 3.42.58, Grace Cousins 4.54.31 and Fi Thatcher 5.37.18.
At the same venue in the Supersonic 10k Aly Sloane was timed at 48min 15sec, then came Hannah Keech 50.03, Amanda Ansell 63.19, Wayne Tolcher 65.24 and Shelley Tolcher 66.55.
Esther Horwood recorded 1.59.34 and Jo Marks 2.03.43 in the half marathon while in the 5k Clare Clifford ran 38.31 and Emma Drag 40.03.
On the hilly roads of the Isle of Wight marathon, Andrew Daniell finished in 4.03.44, in the Midlands Nick Hudson clocked 1.41.16 at the Shrewsbury half marathon and in the Inverness 10k Ali Theobald completed the course along the River Ness in 55.17.
In the Clarendon trail marathon from Salisbury to Winchester, Richard Larcombe was the club’s best with 4.05.40, followed by Barry Davies 4.29.53 and Yvette Emerson 4.37.19, and in the linked half marathon Rachel Bala reached the finish at Broughton in 2.12.50. An all female relay Marathon team comprising of Denise von Roretz, Helen Carlton, Anne Norman & Jannine Eve Kemm finished in 4:53:06
Bea’s latest win – an EA title
One of City of Salisbury’s star teenage athletes, Bea Wood has had her success officially recognised by England Athletics.
In a ceremony at Exeter to mark their annual awards, the sport’s governing body selected Wood – who celebrates her 16th birthday this week - as their junior endurance athlete of the year.
Coached by club veteran Dave Amey, she has enjoyed a remarkably successful 12months, consistently winning on the track as well as in short distance road races such as the nationally televised juniors’ event on The Mall prior to the London marathon. She is equally talented at cross country where she has notched a number of further wins.
Representative honours have included running for her country, region and county as well as her school and club.
By John Ruskin