England Masters take on Wales at the Chester Marathon
It was another day of outstanding racing last weekend when Masters runners from England and Wales took to the streets of Chester for the Chester Marathon - the final Masters International Road Race of the 2024 series. In spite of a heavy rain shower shortly before the start, the race was mainly dry with good conditions for marathon running which was reflected in some excellent times across all the age groups.
Starting just behind the elite entries it was a fine sight seeing the wave of English and Welsh vests leading the masses out of Chester Racecourse, emphasising the continued growth of the England Athletics Masters programme.
Men's results
The M55 category once again provided a star performance with Jonathan Walton winning gold in a time of 2:32:33. His time, subject to confirmation, may turn out to be a British age best road performance. Behind Jonathan there was a three way battle for silver and bronze, with silver going to Welshman Lee Aherne who has medalled across all distances in this year’s representative matches, and bronze to Andrew Taplin.
Elsewhere in the men’s race three athletes ran under 2:30 hrs. Two of these came in the M35 category where Lee Milburn took gold in a time of 2:26:02 ahead of Ben Tyler in 2:29:22, while Marcus England took gold in the M40 category in a time of 2:27:07. The closest performance on the day was for the M40 Silver medal with Tom Hollis taking it in 2:32:04 hrs, closely followed by Mathew Cooper in 2:32:15 hrs
Women's results
Not to be outdone, the W60 category was equally as exciting as 38 seconds divided the first two over 26 miles. Jane Ogilvie (Wales) made her Masters International debut alongside her husband, and was the most delighted and surprised winner of the day, completing the course in a gun time of 3:46:12. silver went to England’s Helen Bolt in 3:46:51. The overall standard across the women’s categories was very high with five athletes breaking the three hour barrier. Rachel Doherty took gold in the W35 category ahead of Sarah Barron. Amy Dixon ran 2:57:32 to take W40 gold and Victoria Ratcliffe took W45 gold in 2:58:21. In the W50 category Annabel Granger came first in 2:52:04, the fastest time in the Masters race. It is worth noting that Annabel holds the British age best road performance over the marathon distance.
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