A Super Sunday for our Masters athletes

England Athletics Masters had their own version of Super Sunday at the weekend, with the opportunity of an England vest up for grabs. The Masters programme continues to go from strength to strength and over 500 runners took to the roads of Wilmslow and Thorney and the trails at the Forest of Dean with the aim of gaining selection for the international representative races later in the year.

Athletes for all three races will be informed if they have been selected once the results have been ratified by the respective race organisers.

Keith Hall Memorial 10k

The Keith Hall Memorial 10k, hosted by Thorney Running Club, was the last of the 10k selection races for the representative race at Bideford in May and was sold out within nine hours of opening. With over a quarter of the entries being Masters, this made for some fierce competition and extremely fast times as runners aged 35 to 80 battled it out for selection.

Masters athletes also dominated the overall results with Alex Gibb (M35 Peterborough and Nene Valley AC) winning the men's race and Hayley Gill (W50 Mansfield Harriers) taking the women's honours.

John O'Donoghue (M40: Bideford AC) said,

"It was fantastic to run a massive PB of 32:35, an improvement of almost a minute! Delighted to be part of the England Athletics Masters' selection process, especially on such a quick course. I just want to say a huge thanks to Simon Mugglestone for his encouragement and support."

Debutante Sarah Capstick (W60: Running Forever RC ) added,

"We were really lucky with the weather today. It is the first time I've tried to qualify for an England vest and I'm really delighted I travelled all the way from Somerset to race."

Chloe Hurst (W35: Harrogate Harriers) was delighted with the event and commented,

"I think that England Athletics offers an amazing opportunity for athletes to compete and have challenges in their later years and have the chance to run for England."

Wilmslow Half Marathon

Over in Wilmslow in Cheshire, the sell-out Wilmslow Half Marathon was the second qualifier of the year for the distance and again the competition was fierce in the battle for England qualification. This is a new race to our programme and 185 masters registered to compete for the coveted vest.

As well as aiming for England selection the race also contained Masters athletes who have been selected for the Marathon representative race and were using it as their final stepping stone before Manchester.

Forest of Dean Spring Trails Half Marathon

Finally, more than 200 masters athletes from all over the country gathered at a former 17th century hunting lodge 'The Speech House Hotel' for the Forest of Dean Spring Trails Half Marathon.

For this race it was all about placings, with athletes needing to finish in the top six of their age category to obtain selection. Over a testing course there were a number of fine performances from Masters athletes ranging from 35 up to 80.

Hannah Large (F35), Caroline Nicholas (F40) and Kelly Edwards (F45) coped with the ups and downs superbly in taking their respective wins. Carolyn Hay (F50), Fee Maycock (F55) and Lynette Porter (F60) excelled around the scenic route. Pamela McHutchon (F65), Teresa Lovern (F70) and Caroline Lavis (F75) took the spoils in finding the tightly packed and compact trails to their liking.

Matthew Robinson (M60) and Ben Robinson (M35) made it a father-son double win, whilst Matthew Battensby (M40), Richard McDowell (M45), Ceri Rees (M50) and David Parkin (M55) romped home around the testing course. Tim McIntyre (M65), Chris Morrison (M70), Francis Brennan (M75) and Brian Symonds (M80) looked majestic as they crossed the line to rapturous applause.

Interested in running as an England Master?

If you have been inspired by the events of Super Sunday you can find out more about the England Athletics Masters programme on our website. See what selection opportunites there are for representative races at a range of distances.

Masters endurance training day: 29 March

Whether or not you were running as a master at one of these events on Sunday, perhaps you'd be interested in our latest Masters' Endurance training day to be held St Mary's Twickenham on Sunday 29 March.