Philippa Bowden led the England charge at Copenhagen Marathon
Philippa Bowden (Aldershot Farnham & District, Helen Clitheroe) produced a stunning performance to finish third at the Copenhagen Marathon on Sunday. Bowden took over five minutes off her previous PB in gruelling hot, championship like conditions in the Danish capital. Sitting a few seconds back from a leading group of Kenyan, Ethiopian and Ugandan athletes, Bowden went through halfway in 74:47 before producing a stunning negative split climb through the field crossing the line in 2:29:16 in a podium position to move to 29th on the England all-time rankings.
Anya Culling (Best Athletics, Nick Bester) also produced an excellent performance in the heat to set a new PB of 2:34:45. The bronze medallist from the 2022 England champs was making her senior England debut and also picked up places in the second half of the race to finish eighth.
The men were led home by a fine performance from Alex Lawrence (Victoria Park and Tower Hamlets) who finished 15th in 2:19:38. Lawrence had run much of the first half of the race with Cambridge & Coleridge athlete Norman Shreeve (Phil O’Dell) who sadly had to withdraw after both had crossed halfway inside 69 minutes. Matthew Crehan (St Helens Sutton, Allison Benton) produced a strong battling display to finish in 2:20:21 with William Strangeway (Lincoln Wellington) the final team finisher in 2:30:28.
Road Running Manager at England Athletics, Tom Craggs, said:
“The marathon provided an excellent opportunity for the team to experience some of the demands of championship running with some gruelling, hot conditions and solo running. Congratulations to all the athletes and thank you to the team staff, Andrew Jones and Alyson Dixon for the support and expertise.”