England v Wales Masters race fast and furious

Friday evening saw the third of this year’s Master Road England v Wales Internationals - over 5km in Kingsley, Cheshire. This was the first time that both countries had put out an equal number of runners in each age group, showing the continued development of the programme.

Runners assembled from all over England and recounted stories of arduous drives over to Cheshire. That was soon forgotten once the race started. According to Tim Taylor (M65):

"The spirit and atmosphere of the race was bang on."

And what a race it was. It was fast and furious from the start and Ben Robinson (M35) was right up at the sharp end of the race, winning his category in 14:33 and finishing 11th overall. The M40 category saw the top three finishing within 6 seconds of each other, with James Connor (pictured below) emerging on top.

If this was a close race, the M55 was even closer.

Lee Aherne was the star of the day for Wales with an incredible one second victory over Richard Johnson of England (pictured with their awards). In fact, there was just six seconds separating the first four athletes. Lee finished in 16:16, second was Richard in 16:17, followed by Francois Rafferty in 16:21 and Simon Mugglestone fourth in 16:22 (all three representing England).

In the women’s race Carla Davies stormed to victory in the W35 category in 17:04. Making her international debut Lucy Wasinski (pictured below) finished second behind Nichola Evans in the W40 Category, running her second fastest 5k.  Lucy said:

"I feel so proud to have had the chance to wear an England vest and will treasure the memories for ever." 

In the W50 Category Lucie Tait-Harris took first place with Kathryn Metcalfe holding off Ann Chinoy by 3 seconds to finish in second place. Kathryn said:

"I am super proud to be running for my country. The whole feel of the evening was lovely (helped by the beautiful weather) and it’s definitely a night I will cherish forever!"

It was an England v Wales battle for first place in the W60 category where Carole Higgs of England held off Sarah Heath of Wales. Meanwhile in the W65 category Barbara Stevens (pictured below) had set herself a target of sub 23 minutes, what she termed 'the holy grail of W65 running' and was delighted to have ducked under it with a time of 22:58.

The final words from the evening go to Sue Lockhart (W65) who summed up Masters running.

"I cannot stress enough how fantastic it is for runners as they get older to still have these opportunities to challenge themselves and to represent their country."

Photos by Emma Hollinshead.
Photos are free to view and download:

Results

Men

Women