WEEDON 10K
JUN. 21St 2016
Elisha De Mello stormed to victory for Rugby & Northampton AC in the Weedon 10k road race.
His time of 33:48 was 43 seconds clear of the second placed runner in the seventh race of the East Midlands Grand Prix Series.
De Mello, 20, became the first R&N male athlete since Mark McKay 13 years ago to win any race in the Series.
The Senior Men had already successfully defended the overall title the previous week, but they consolidated that position with another superb team win with two more runners in the top four.
After finishing second at Harborough last week Dominic Jones was in 3rd spot with 34:50 and 20 seconds behind was Stephen Marks who went one place higher than his best in 4th.
Daniel Mould completed the squad with his 5th race of the Series to finish in 14th place on 36:38.
There were other fine runs from Lewis Cherry in 20th with 38:13, Jonathan Burke (25th in 38:24) and Daniel Williams ( 26th in 38:42 ).
The R&N Senior Women achieved their second win of the Grand Prix with Amy Sarkies finishing in 2nd overall, but first over 35 with a time of 41:02 to become the seventh different athlete to lead home the club this year.
Vicky Nealon duplicated her 3rd spot from Harborough with 41:15 and Veteran Helen Jones recorded 48:27 in 24th, which placed her 5th in the F45 section.
Not to be outdone the Veteran women took their first victory of the competition and Kate Williams in 34th place on 49:10 closed out that team and finished 4th in the over 55’s.
Although the Senior women are lying equal first in the Series with Northampton Road Runners with only one race remaining they can only end their 12 year wait for the title if NRR fail to make the top three at Milton Keynes.
The Veteran Men finished in third spot on the night and the top three places overall are still to be decided with R&N lying third just 1 point behind leaders Wootton Road Runners.
Nigel Roberts led them home in 30th position overall on 39:02 (M45 6th ) with Jonathan Taylor just eight seconds adrift as the 5th M40. Dave O’Leary had a good run to place 2nd in the M50 category on 39:54 and completing the team was Laurence Scott ( M50 8th in 43:02 ).
