Miller wins World Duathlon Championships
It’s not every week that we get to lead our report with an announcement that we have produced a world champion, but that’s exactly what happened in Ottawa, Canada when our very own Clare Miller won the world age group gold medal in the World Duathlon Championships. Well, we didn’t exactly produce Clare, but she is one of us and she did brilliantly. And when we say ‘age group gold medal’ we’re talking the 25 to 29-year-olds. Yeah, Clare is the fastest under-30 duathlete in the whole wide world.
So that was the good news. But to invert the cliché, for every silver lining…..
Our runners and jumpers and throwers turned out in force in Bedford in a bid to avoid relegation from the 2nd division of the Southern Athletics League, and they were all prepared to take a bullet for the team. Unfortunately several of our stars were away on holiday, and results in other areas went against us, so despite a sterling collective effort, we fell short by a measly 19.5 points, which means we’re going down.
More of that later. First, Clare’s report…..
Clare Miller is world champion
“I took part in the age group world duathlon championships in Ottawa, Canada on Saturday morning. Admittedly a somewhat niche sport, generally suited to those who sink rather than swim, this is an annual event for amateur athletes, most of whom balance training with a job. Some might question the decision to travel over 5000km to spend ~two hours racing along a dual carriageway. There were two races on offer: a sprint (5k run/20k bike/2.5k run) and a standard (10k run/40k bike/5k run) distance, with a total 788 finishers across both events.
“I set off at 07.25 on a hot windy morning with the 170 other women racing the standard distance and immediately felt like I was at home at a Met League: there were about 100 people ringing cowbells among the spectators along the course - the sound was incredible. I felt strong in the first 10K and was satisfied with the run, although not with the official time: according to my Garmin I ran 6:12 minute miles (would’ve given me a 38.45 split), but my official time was 39.49 so it was clearly a long course. I finished the first run as 9th female overall, 3rd in my age group.
“Then onto the bike, a pretty dull out and back loop with one extra ‘technical’ section which seemed to me to be an unexciting trip around a block. I was nervous I’d be disadvantaged on the bike as I prefer hilly courses, but actually I held a PB speed averaging 22.4mph and clocked the fastest female bike split of the day of 1:06. I reeled in the two women ahead of me in my age group over the first 15k, and then built on the lead over the remaining 25K, entering T2 as 2nd female overall, 1st in my age group.
“Unfortunately I’d cooked it on the bike and even though aerobically I felt fine, my quads were screaming. My pace on the second run was a disappointing 6:46/mi and I was overtaken by 2 women to finish 4th overall. Thankfully they were from a different age category, so I became the 25-29 age group world champ.
“I’d known going into the race that this year was my best chance for a good result given that next year I’ll be ‘promoted’ to the 30-34 category, historically the most competitive. So – I’m pleased, and already I’ve celebrated a bit too well.”
Triumph and tragedy in Bedford
Here’s Dan’s report on Saturday’s brave showing in Bedford….
“We honestly thought we'd done enough to avoid the drop when we got second place (as anyone within half a mile of the stadium will have heard - we were loud). It was damnably tight between us and Peterborough who clearly weren't in any hurry to visit the murky fastness of Division 3N either. We did enough to beat them on the day, but not quite enough to cancel out their advantage in the league table (we needed to beat them by 30 points) so fair play to them and best of luck next season.
“That meant we needed results to go our way elsewhere which is never ideal. The other teams in the mix were Newham & Essex Beagles and St Albans and they both did well in their match, confound them. I think we satisfied Sue's demand that we go down fighting and hopefully the impetus of a good turnout and a really fun day (which it was) will mean we won't struggle so badly for numbers next year as we did in some of our fixtures this season.
“Can I also just say, the Bedford International Athletics stadium is a decent venue? I mean, it's not Finsbury Park, but it still isn't bad."
Sue adds that we “put up a valiant effort to avoid relegation from Division 2N in the SAL, but unfortunately it was to no avail - we're going down”.
"Basically, we did our darndest and it was a great day out, brought to an end with a thrilling 400m relay in which Filmon Russem flicked a turbo switch and Nathan desperately fought against tying-up muscles to try to make it into second place, unfortunately unsuccessfully. Honestly, who needs the World Athletics Champs?
“We had a great turnout on the men's side that enabled us to cover every event with an A + B string, and with some respectable results, too. We did quite well in the jumps, with Emmanuel Nwaobodo and Filmon Russem winning their long jump A and triple jump B strings, respectively - we also scooped maximum points in the 100mH thanks to Israel. Gianni Ciolli made his SAL debut and sounds enthusiastic for next season, which is exactly what we want to hear.
“Our women's side was boosted by season's first appearances from Claire Morrissey and Cathy Collins, who really got into the multi-eventing spirit of the SAL and put down some great markers for next season (ahem), as well as from Noelle O'Regan, who threw an impressive 25 metres in her first go at the discus since school days many years ago. Anne-Christine Scherer was competent and professional as ever, and we also had a great jumper in Sara Vilocy, who won the high jump A string. And it feels wrong to leave out another great 1500m from Rebecca, who was lucky to actually get a proper race, which isn't always the case in the lower SAL divisions.
“We were also aided by several young athletes - it was Christiane's and Sinead's first time at one of these fixtures and they did well to tackle some of the more difficult events, as did Rachel with the steeplechase.
“Thank you to everyone who officiated at Bedford, especially Richard Macaulay, who was sidelined due to a stomach bug, and a thank you to Adrian as well, who would so much prefer running around participating in gazillion events than organising team declaration sheets. Time for cross-country but let's pick up where we left off for #SAL2014.”
And, finally, John reports:
“I’m afraid results at the Luton match didn’t work out for us. Newham and St Albans came first and second in the match, thus keeping ahead of us. We overtook Hillingdon who came last in their match, but remained behind Peterborough on match points as we knew. It’s Div-3 next season.”
The final division 2 standings are as follows:
9 Newham & Essex Beagles 800.5 12 10 Luton 855.5 11 11 St Albans 748.5 11 12 Peterborough 789 10 13 London Heathside 769.5 10 14 Cambridge & Coleridge 815 9 15 Hillingdon 724.5 9 16 Barnet & District 502.5 6
Several other runners and multi-eventers were in action at the weekend:
Paul and Andrew at the Stokey Splash and Dash
Paul Mercer reports that this aquathlon, held at the Western Reservoir, near the Castle in Stoke Newington, was “a great little event organised by CapitalTri and populated mainly by London Fields triathletes, with a supporting cast from a variety of other clubs”. Both of our men did well, with Andrew coming second in the V40 age group and 11th overall (out of 63 finishers) and Paul came 21st.
The Boyles race away their Irish holiday
Brian Boyle completed three races in six days while on holiday in Ireland – the Donegal Town 5k on August 5 (where Caroline Boyle was the second woman despite “picking up a planter injury half way around and hobbling across the line”, Brian reports). Five days on Brian ran in the Glenties 5k and the following day, August 11, he ran in the hilly, windy Letterkenny 15k, “to complete a hat -trick of first Heathsdier home”.
Alex and Rob win their Parkruns
Fourteen of our runners took part in eight 5k Parkruns on Saturday, and two of them won their races Alex Galloway came first out of 68 to win the Hanley event in 18:19 and Rob Shulman came first out of 56 in the Ally Pally event.
Results
2013 Ottawa ITU Duathlon Championships, Saturday August 10: 25-29 Female AG
1st Clare Miller (GBR) 2:09:41 (10k run 39:49; 40k cycle 1:06:08; 5k run 21:53)
Southern Athletics League, Division 2 North - Round 5 - Bedford (Saturday August 10)
The full results can be found here: http://www.southernathletics.org.uk/assets/files/results/2013/13SAL2n5Bedford.htm
The final standings from the event were:
Bedford and County – 241.5
London Heathside – 177.5
Peterborough – 168
Wycombe – 115
Stokey Splash and Dash Aquathlon, Western Reservoir, Stoke Newington, Sunday August 11
11th (2nd v 40): Andrew Dunderdale (gun time: 1:10:04: 1500 m swim – 27.30; 10k run – 41.25)
21st: Paul Mercer (chip time: 1:12:07: swim – 29.33; run – 40:48).
Donegal Town 5k Mon. 5th Aug - Brian Boyle 20:45, Caroline Boyle 23:42 (2nd woman)
Glenties 5k -Fri 10th Aug Brian Boyle 21:07
Danny McDaid 15k, Letterkenny Sun 11th Aug - Brian Boyle 68mins 57 secs..
Parkruns, Saturday, August 10
| Ally Pally (56 participants) |
| 1 Rob SHULMAN 00:19:48 |
| 12 Jas BOLLA 00:23:10 |
| 32 Lyn EVANS 00:27:55 |
| Amager Fælled (90 participants) |
| 35 Jane HIGGINS 00:22:57 |
| Beckton (27 participants). |
| 14 Laura BOOTHMAN 00:26:53 |
| Durham (274 participants) |
| 65 Mary GATEHOUSE 00:23:20 |
| Finsbury Park (123 participants). |
| 30 C ZACHARIDES 00:23:10 |
| 44 Jesper LYCKE 00:23:56 |
| 46 Marco DRYBURGH 00:24:07 |
| 74 Monika THALER 00:26:33 |
| Hampstead Heath (163 participants) |
| 40 Andrew Simon CONWAY 00:23:08 |
| 70 Bob GOULD 00:25:20 |
| Hanley (68 participants) |
| 1 Alex GALLOWAY 00:18:19 |
| Highbury Fields (99 participants) |
| 71 Steve WOOLF 00:26:47 |