Medals were the order of the weekend for Heanor Running Club members as Lisa Palmer, James Mee and Stuart King bagged gold and Jill Burke and Chris Rainsford bronze in championship races across the country.
Lisa and Jill travelled to Horwich for the Horwich 5k incorp. British Masters Championships and both ladies returned with silverware to back-up their silver medal-winning exploits in Birmingham at the British Masters Road Relays last month.
Over the three-lap, town centre course, Lisa made it three victories inside a week and added gold to victory at the Ramathon Half Marathon and BDL road race on Tuesday.
After clocking the joint-fastest time of the day alongside Telford’s Claire Martin at the relays four weeks ago, Lisa followed it up with a personal best and dominant gold medal-winning performance to beat the same rival to gold.
Lisa clocked 17:06 to win by some twenty seconds and wrote on Facebook after:
“So pleased to say I am British Masters 5k champion. Not bad for old birds!!!!”
Jill kept up her consistent summer form to secure bronze in the V50-54 category. Similarly to Lisa, Jill took category honours at the Ramathon last weekend and showed no ill effects as she finished third in 19:47, just six seconds shy of silver.
Full results HERE
Joe Rainsford, James Mee, Dale Annable, Matt Bickerstaff and Stuart King headed to the home of British Athletics on Saturday for the Midland Track & Field Championships.
The Alexandra Stadium in Birmingham saw Stuart opt for the 1500m – and to great effect – whilst the others competed over twelve and a half laps of the track in wet, warm and blustery conditions.
Stuart, who has a personal best of 3:50.27 over the 3 and ¾ lap distance, has shown his range this summer and competed in distances ranging from 800m up to 10k. He won by a relatively comfortable two-second margin in the final on Saturday in 3:57.06.
In the 5,000m, James went from onlooker last year to winner this as he enjoyed a clear victory in 14:56.32. James was also the only man to go inside 15 minutes as he won by seven seconds ahead of Sean Byrne and Gordon Lee.
An opening kilometre of 2:57 came back to bite Dale, who was forced to drop out with a few laps to run, whilst Joe still managed a PB despite slowing to finish sixth in 15:33.67. Matt also clocked a personal best and finished one place behind in 15:49.63.
Full results HERE
Chris Rainsford grabbed a medal in the 5,000m at the South of England Track & Field Championships at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Although he eventually wound up with bronze after leading at the bell, Chris took twenty-two seconds off his personal best set exactly twelve months ago to cross the line in 14:44.69.
Full results HERE
Photos: Facebook