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Manchester Marathon successes

4 April 2022 (by admin)

Karen Doherty

Eight Radcliffe Athletic Club members joined the thousands of people taking part in the Manchester Marathon.

Neal Emmerson was first home for the club, finishing a fantastic 103rd in 2:35:27.

More than 20,000 people took on the flat course which started and finished in Trafford and took runners through Timperley, Altringham and Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Matthew Smith was ‘very pleased’ with his time of 3:23:39 in his first marathon, despite a tough last seven miles, as he was aiming for 3:30:00. Kelly Porter was ‘over the moon’ with a 3:24:32 pb while Jenny Yates knocked a huge five minutes off her pb to finish fourth FV55 in 3:26:15.

Mia Derbyshire clocked a pb of 3:26:57, Simon Foulkes ran 3:28:48, there was a pb of 3:38:22 for Michael Kontowtt and Sheila Jones was superb second FV65 in 4:00:10.

Further afield, there was also a pb for Paul Benson who ran 3:53:15 in the Paris Marathon.

Twelve black and gold vests were in action at The Trotters five-mile trail race in Bolton, the first fixture in this year’s Central Lancashire Grand Prix which is contested by local clubs.

The club had three runners in the top 20 with Gary Adkins finishing seventh in 31:27. John Gibbs was 12th and first MV40 in 31:47 and Rob Shiels ran 33:28 to claim 17th and second MV45. Also running were: Neil Greenhalgh (37:33), Ian Swan (37:45) Steve Fawcett (38:38), Peter Hunter (39:49), John Mcnicoll (40:28), David Bartlett (44:07), Karen Doherty (50:32), Elaine Bailey (50:33) and Peter Warr (52:46).

Paula Abernethy had a great race in her first triathlon, finishing eight FV50 in the Southport Splashworld Sprint Triathlon. She completed the 400m swim, 20km cycle and 5km race in 1:28:27.

Some of the weekend’s racers were also in action at the popular 5k parkruns. In Bolton, Rob Lister was 9th in 21:11 and Cheryl Gallagher ran 34:20.

Elsewhere, Peter Hunter clocked 22:23 at Burnley parkrun; Tracy Wroe ran 35:30 at Penrhyn; Jen Entwistle ran 34:09 at Heaton Park; and Bev Quinton and Ian Harris ran 38:13 and 38:19 respectively at Worsley Woods.