A busy weekend sees a number of athletes pick up
personal-best times at London Indoor Games
Jacob Allen continued his impressive form with an outstanding performance at the British Universities & Colleges Sports Cross Country Championships in Brighton on Saturday, on what was a busy weekend for Rugby & Northampton Athletics Club.
Allen, representing St Mary’s University, shot around the 12km course in 41 minutes and 34 seconds to finish 32nd out of 314 athletes in the Men’s ‘A’ Race, which came after victory at the Midlands Cross Country Championships in his previous outing.
Allen’s R&N club-mate, Stirling University’s George Goodwin, also impressed to place 71st amongst a huge field with a time of 43.04, in a race won by University of Birmingham’s Jonny Hay in 38.57.
The ‘B’ race saw William Gardner compete over the shorter 8km course, with 443 runners battling it out for victory. Gardner, of Sheffield University, dashed around in 28.13 to secure a fantastic 26th-place finish, while St Mary’s University’s Scott Halsted taking the honours with a time of 26.45.
The competing field was even bigger in the women’s race, with 497 athletes taking to the 6.4km course in East Sussex. Bethan Goddard was R&N’s sole representative in the event and she finished 197th after crossing the line in 29.55.
Meanwhile, a number of R&N athletes came away from the London Indoor Games at Lee Valley with new personal bests to their name.
Sierra Leonean athlete Adel Sesay clocked a lightning-fast 7.04 over 60 metres in the under-20 men’s event to claim a new PB, while Zachary Stapleton and Rico Ewer set respective times of 7.17 and 7.13 in the same category.
In the women’s under-20 event, Tia Clues set her fastest time to date over the 60-metre distance by crossing the line in 8.29 seconds. while Danny George posted 7.41 in the senior men’s event. James Wright was another athlete to celebrate a PB over the 60-metre distance, in the hurdles, clocking 8.33.
Under-20 athlete Katie Clubb carried her excellent cross-country season form on to the track to set a PB of 2:24.49 in the 800m, and Hizam Sheekh impressed in the men’s under-20 race, clocking 2:00.23. David Brooks, competing over the same distance in the senior men’s, saw his efforts rewarded with a time of 2:09.32.
