Romsey Advertiser's Articles

The final race of the winter CC6 cross country series of races was held, by the Hamble, at Manor Farm. A slightly depleted Romsey team still had good results with Lynne Whitaker in excellent form again, vying for the lead all the way round but just being pipped into second place. The ladies team also came second with strong runs by Mary Corbett and Penny Jennings who completed the team, finishing in 10th and 12th respectively. Other results were 19th Julia Abab, 29th Anna Duignan and 30th Wendy Couper. The results for the men were; 11th Chris Brown, 35th Paul Cross, 43rd Paul Bradley, 54th Keith Stone and 57th David Nixon. The men’s team came 6th.

In the overall series results the Romsey ladies just missing out on the winners trophy by one point to Hardley. Lynne Whitaker was the 2nd lady overall and 2nd in her age category; Jane Field was 5th overall and 2nd in her age category. There was strength in depth as Wendy Couper and Mary Corbett both won their age categories as well. The Romsey ladies filled 11 of the top 34 places, not bad for a small club! Top runner for the men was Chris Brown who finished 11th.

In the Reading Half Marathon personal bests tumbled for the Romsey Road Runners. Michelle Shaw ran a personal best 10k split on the way to smashing her best ½ marathon time with 2.05.08. There were big PBs too for Gill Callus with 2.17.33, her marathon training is really going well, and Sarah Thorn with 1.52.31. Other results were: Liz Slade – 1.49.11, Kerry Williams – 1.49.17, Derek Kelly – 1.58.54 and Steve Davies – 2.06.07.

Tamatha Ryan continued her training for the London Marathon with another successful race. She completed the Steyning Stinger, a tough off road half marathon, in 1 hour 55 min, just 9 minutes off the ladies race record. This was good enough to place her as the 6th lady and in the top 40 overall and would have won the ladies race in previous year.

Alistair Longworth also completed an out of county race doing the Gloucester 20M at Frampton-Upon-Severn in Gloucestershire. Having not done that distance for several years he was extremely pleased to complete it in 2.49.12, and even managing a negative split on the slightly undulating course.