MILTON KEYNES 10K
JUN. 27th 2017
Dominic Jones became the first Rugby & Northampton athlete for 10 years to win the East
Midlands Grand Prix Series.
Jones finished in 3rd place in the eighth and final race at Milton Keynes in a time of 32:45 for the
10k course, which was enough to seal overall victory for the series after claiming three wins and a
second place.
Pushing him hard again was his team mate William Gardner with an excellent 5th spot in 33:08.
Unfortunately, the Senior Men didn’t quite do enough to hold onto their team title when they had
to settle for third on the night, but runners-up in the Series to new champions Hermitage Harriers.
To complete the team there were solid runs for Mark Hill in 19th position on 35:08 and Daniel
Williams in 23rd with 35:38.
In the Ladies section R&N’s Vicky Nealon claimed 2nd spot for the fourth time in 38:10 and this
also gave her the runners-up spot in the overall standings, the highest ever by any female athlete
from the club.
The R&N Senior Ladies also created history by becoming the first female team to win all eight
races and helping them to do this were Rosanna Andrews in 3rd place just seven seconds behind
Nealon and Sarah Davis-Foxon who won the F45 category in 6th overall on 41:11.
Backing up Davis-Foxon in the Veteran team, who took their 7th victory, were Zoe Shepherd in
16th with 44:45 ( F35 2nd) and Judith Rose in 20th with 45:18 ( F40 4th). Both Shepherd and Rose
finished 3rd overall in their respective age groups.
After smashing the W70 world 5000m record two days earlier Angela Copson BEM duly won
her category for the Series with her fifth win in 45:26.
Helen Jones clinched third on the night and overall in the F50 competition with 46:34 and Alison
Cobb finished 4th in the same age group and 5th for the Series with 47:02.
Pete Currington ( 36th ) and Daniel Cook (40th ) recorded times of 36:47 and 36:54 respectively in
the Senior Mens race and then came the overall U20 Champion Matthew Chronicle who was timed
at 39:14 to complete all eight races and winning his fifth.
The R&N Veteran men had already won the title the previous week and they could only manage
7th at Milton Keynes.
The squad consisted of Matt Carroll with 39:16 ( M40 9th), Mark Quinn on 41:36 ( M40 15th in final standings),
Laurence Scott in 42:04 ( M50 6th for overall series ) and Alan Mould on 42:16 whose M55 5th place gave him 4th overall.
A total of 27 athletes completed the Series for Rugby & Northampton AC in what was their most
successful season ever in the Grand Prix with 23 age category victories from a possible 32.
