Record numbers and times for Armagh athletes

England’s men win the Team Competition in Armagh whilst England’s women finish second to Scotland with the smallest of margins.

A record 113 runners broke the 15 minute mark in the men’s 5k as 49 women went sub 10 minutes over 3k.

Steph Twell (Aldershot, Farnham & District, coach: Geoff Wightman) equalled the course record of 8:59 to clinch victory ahead of Jessica Judd (Blackburn/Loughborough Students, coach: Mick Judd) and England´s Amy Griffiths (Aldershot Farnham & District, coach: Rob Denmark) in 3rd with a new PB (9:10). 5th placed Lauren Heyes (Leigh Harriers)(9:16) and Holly Archer (Cambridge & Coleridge, coach: Mark Vile) who was 17th with a time of 9:31 also counted in the team competition. Scotland won the team competition with a total time of 27:48 just 7 seconds ahead of England with Ireland in 3rd.

Finnish athlete Topi Raitanen ran a blistering 13:43 to break the men’s 5k course record. England's team was represented by Andrew Heyes (Hallamshire/Birmingham Uni, coach: Steve Vernon, Philip Sesemann (Leeds City AC, coach: Andrew Henderson) and Kieran Clements (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) who came home in 5th (13:48), 6th (13:50) and 10th (13:53) respectively. England won the men’s team competition with a total time of 41:30 with Scotland 2nd and Finland finishing 3rd.

Team Leader Andy Henderson and Team Coach Vicente Modahl enjoyed watching brave runs by the selected runners for England on a night where Armagh again strengthened its position as on of the leading road races worldwide in overall quality.