England Masters conquer Maidenhead Half-Marathon
Congratulations to all of the England Masters runners who competed at the Maidenhead Half-Marathon at the weekend. Over 150 runners representing around 135 clubs from across the country donned the England masters vest to put in some fine performances. Despite the warm conditions, the fast and flat course - combined with the pride in wearing the England vest - was conducive to not only producing age group bests, but also some life-time best performances for some of the runners.
Having qualified by right through one of three qualifying races earlier in the year competition to make the team was tough, and there was some high-quality racing amongst the some of the country’s best masters runners, as well a small contingent of invited guest runners from the Celtic Nations.
The overall race was won by Rob Corney (Reading RR) who has been selected to compete for England on the Scotiabank Toronto Marathon in the autumn following a 2:19:13 performance at Brighton marathon earlier in the year, and so England masters runners Paul Piper (West 4 Harriers) was in good company as he took the overall third place in the race to run a life time best of 1:09:45.
The oldest member of the team was 83-year old Larry Corkey (Bedford Harriers) demonstrating that it’s never too late to be competitive and with some fantastic role models across the age groups; anyone stood watching from the side lines wondering if it was too late to take up running could not have failed to be inspired.
The top two performances based on the WAVA age graded scoring came from Paul Mingay (Colchester Harriers) who has now completed the triple of England Master opportunities having represented the team at 10k, half and Marathon. Paul - a V60 athlete - won his age category in a time of 01:17:40 time with a world class WAVA ranking of 93.63%. Similarly, in the women’s race Treena Johnson F55 (Dewsbury RR) who has also been a regular on the England Masters teams ran a time of 01:28:39 to achieve a 92.57%
There was a strong contingent of runners from Cornwall including three runners from the same family all taking part; Emma Stepto, her mother Jackie Jenkin and step-father Richard Jenkin were all competing in the England masters vest.
Age Group Winners
F35: Jill Collett (Datchet Dashers) 01:19:16
F40: Charlene Jacobs-Conradie (Luton AC) 01:19:07
F45: Emma Stepto (Cornwall AC) 01:20:58
F50: Carrie Hoskins (Reading RR) 01:26:19
F55: Treena Johnson (Dewsbury RR) 01:28:39
F60: Tracey Lasan (Reading RR) 01:39:46 pictured above
F65: Diane Warren (Hayle Runners) 01:52:30 pictured above
F70: Kate Williamson (Eynsham Runners) 01:53:40
M35: Paul Piper (West 4 Harriers) 01:09:45
M40: Daniel Hull (Waverley) 01:12:58
M45: Jonathan Walton (Leeds City AC) 01:11:43
M50: Tony Wright (Cornwall AC) 01:16:24
M55: Tony Dunn (Cornwall AC) 01:18:18 pictured above
M60: Paul Mingay (Colchester Harriers) 01:17:40
M65: Paul Whelpton (Brighton Phoenix) 01:22:54
M70: David Cartwright (Poole Runners) 01:31:44
M75: Ian Spencer (Datchet Dashers) 01:39:08
M80: Larry Corkey (Bedford Harriers) 02:13:21 pictured above
