Cardiff athlete clocks 31:34 in Leeds on a busy weekend which also includes the Valencia half-marathon, Dublin Marathon and IAU 24H World Championships

A report on the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon, won by Valary Jemeli Aiyabei and Fikre Tefera and featuring a Scottish record by Steph Twell, can be found here, while other recent highlights are below.

Age UK Leeds Abbey Dash, October 27

Charlotte Arter ran 31:34 for the fourth best ever legal British 10km time behind Paula Radcliffe’s 30:21, Liz McColgan’s 30:39 and Wendy Sly’s 31:29. Gemma Steel has clocked 31:26 but that was achieved on an overall downhill course.

Cardiff’s Arter claimed victory in Leeds ahead of Abbie Donnelly in 32:00 and Beth Potter with 32:05. Jess Judd was fourth in 32:11.

The men’s race was won by Omar Ahmed as he clocked 28:38 to finish one second ahead of Ross Millington. Adam Craig was third in 28:45 as nine athletes went sub-29 minutes and 29 went sub-30:00.

Josh Cowperthwaite’s 29:36 puts him second on the UK under-20 all time list, and he is equal with Jon Gascoyne with his 29:35 chip time.

Also on chip times, W55 Clare Elms (36:38) went second all time and M55s Andy Leach (32:04) and Guy Bracken (32:19) went second and third on the UK lists.

UPDATE: On November 26 organisers released a statement to say that the course had been found to be 23 metres short. News with the full statement can be found here.

Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso EDP, Spain, October 27

There was an Ethiopian double as Yomif Kejelcha won the men’s race and Senbere Teferi the women’s.

Kejelcha won in 59:05, a couple of seconds ahead of Kenya’s Benard Kipkorir Ngeno, with Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer third and Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton fourth.

Norway’s Sondre Nordstad Moen was eighth in 60:14, while Isle of Man’s Ollie Lockley ran a PB of 63:01 for 31st and his fellow Brit Jack Gray was two places back in a PB of 63:15.

After leading the women’s race through 5km in 15:19, Sifan Hassan – who had an eye on the world record – suffered a heavy fall and was four seconds behind Senbere Teferi and Joan Chelimo at 10km, as the pair passed that point on world record pace of 30:43.

Teferi and Chelimo went through 15km in 46:16, with Hassan 16 seconds back, but the Dutch runner worked her way back to second, clocking 65:53 behind Teferi’s Ethiopian record 65:32. Chelimo was third in 66:09.

USA’s Molly Huddle was seventh in 69:35, while Britain’s Lily Partridge was 11th in 71:58 as she continues her marathon preparations and Ireland’s Emma Mitchell ran a 72:28 PB one place behind her.

KBC Dublin Marathon, Ireland, October 27

Morocco’s Othmane El Goumri, who was banned from 2016-18 due to biological passport irregularities, won the 40th edition of the event in a course record of 2:08:05.

Stephen Scullion ran the race of his life to finish second in 2:12:01, breaking the Northern Ireland record just three weeks after finishing 43rd in the World Championships marathon.

That claimed him the national title and saw him improve on his previous best of 2:14:34 which had been set in Houston last January.

Motu Gedefa (2:27:48), Mesera Dubiso (2:28:29) and Denbali Chefo (2:29:51) claimed an Ethiopian clean sweep in the women’s race, with Britain’s Natasha Cockram finishing fifth in 2:30:50 for a PB and Welsh record.

Ann Marie McGlynn was another record-breaker as she clocked 2:32:54 to improve on the Northern Ireland women’s marathon record time of 2:35.27 set by Teresa Duffy in 2001.

IAU 24H World Championships, Albi, France, October 26-27

USA’s Camille Herron won the women’s world 24-hour title in France, improving her world record to 270.116km (167.84 miles) .

Leading Brits were Jessica Baker (227.558km) in 16th, Catherine Simpson (220.301km, pictured below) and Wendy Whearity (217.174km).

Photo by Norbert Mihalik

“I always run my own race but it was great to share the track with such high calibre athletes and to see Camille smash her own world record,” said Baker. “It’s always so inspirational to see my fellow athletes, often against great adversity, pushing themselves to new limits.”

Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania won the men’s title with 278.973km as Paul Maskell was top Brit in 15th with 251.261km. James Stewart ran 250.696km and Dan Lawson 244.732km.

Maskell (pictured below) said: “For a first-time GB athlete I was blown away by the team atmosphere in what is normally an individual event.

“The crew support behind the scenes was phenomenal. I’m looking forward to building on this performance and helping the team win medals at future championships.”

Photo by Norbert Mihalik

USA gained gold in both team events. Their men achieved 799.754km ahead of Hungary’s 782.241km and France’s 779.076km, while the women achieved 746.132km ahead of Poland’s 721.124km and Germany’s 696.846km.

Britain’s women were fifth and men sixth.

Lindsays Scottish National XC Relays, Cumbernauld, October 26

Central AC made it seven wins in eight years in the senior men’s race and Edinburgh Uni Hare and Hounds made it four-in-a-row with senior women’s gold.

Callum Hawkins returned to his cross country roots, racing for the first time since his fourth place finish in the world championships marathon, helping his Kilbarchan AAC team to silver. Inverclyde AC were third.

Cameron Milne and Conan McCaughey flew in from Holland and Ireland respectively to help Central AC’s cause and they had their team in second at the halfway stage. Alastair Hay duly pushed them into first and did well only to concede five seconds to Hawkins before Jamie Crowe brought it home.

Edinburgh Uni were seventh after the opening leg from Rebecca Johnson – with Fife AC’s Jenny Selman and Eloise Walker of Glasgow Uni out in front – but Constance Nankivel brought the students into a lead they never relinquished via third leg runner Eilidh Jaffray and Holly Page.

Edinburgh AC were second in the senior women’s event and Giffnock North third.

Giffnock won the young males race, while Fife claimed victory in the young females race.

British Masters Cross Country Relay Championships, Long Eaton, October 26

Salford Harriers dominated the younger men’s age groups as they took both M35 and M45 five-stage titles, writes Martin Duff.

Their Carl Hardman and Mark Russell were fastest in the M35 and M45 races respectively over a slightly shortened course that was waterlogged and with one flooded section where the water came up to the shorts of some runners.

Photo by David Griffiths

Lucy Elliott was fastest among the women as she led Winchester to the W45 title and the 53-year-old ran two seconds quicker than top W35 Chrissie Dover of Derby. However, it was Bristol & West who narrowly won the W35 event.

Elsewhere among the women, Steel City took the two oldest age groups while Barnet relieved Oxford City of the M65 title but Stan Owen was again the fastest in this group.

Loughborough, October 25

World T38 long jump champion Olivia Breen warmed up for the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai with a best leap of 4.70m.

World T44 champion Stef Reid recorded a best mark of 5.19m.

Zak Skinner achieved a best of 6.40m and Luke Sinnott 5.19m.

Ljubljana Marathon, Slovenia, October 27

Kelkile Gezahegn of Ethiopia won the men’s race in 2:07:29, while Kenya’s Bornes Chepkirui set a women’s course record of 2:21:26.

Huawei Venice Marathon, Italy, October 27

Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Anbesa Lencho and Kenya’s Judith Korir won, running respective PBs of 2:10:49 and 2:29:20.

CISM Military World Games, China, October 22-27

Championship records were set by shot putter Darlan Romani with a 22.36m throw, Salwa Eid Naser, who won the 400m in 50.15, and Mariya Lasitskene, who won the high jump with a 2.01m leap.

» See the October 31 issue of AW magazine for more from this week’s athletics and running events

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