Milton Keynes Athletic Club

Report 26 November 2002

Wolverton 5 runners drenched at the start

In meteorological terms the weather on Saturday afternoon was “changeable”, which would be confirmed by almost 400 runners as they prepared for the start of the Wolverton 5 mile road race. With five minutes to go the rain turned in to a downpour and just to confirm the time of year the deluge was interspersed with hail. By the time the start siren went at 3pm few of the starters could have been remotely dry and any that were would soon find themselves soaked as they set off on the flooded paths around Willen Lake. However, before the leaders reached the finish line the sun was doing its best to break through the cloud cover and for a short while it even felt warm for the 354 finishers.

Third win for Steven Body

The poor conditions did not however appear to have much effect on the leaders although there were a number of dropouts as cold muscles failed to respond. It a close race, Steven Body from Vauxhall managed to hold off the challenge of Milton Keynes AC’s Richard Nifah to win the race for the third time, nine seconds ahead of Richard, with an impressive time of 24.04. Sixteen seconds behind Richard was Chris Shelton of Chesterfield followed by Birchfield Harrier, Mike Bouldstridge. Ian Grime of Newham completed the top five only 29 seconds behind the winner.

Vicky Pincombe wins the Women’s Race

The Women’s race was no less exciting as Bideford’s Vicky Pincombe won by 22 seconds over Bedford and County’s Louisa Wood with a fast time of 27.50. In third was Caroline Weatherill from Shaftesbury, followed by the second Bedford runner Anna Berrill, who held off the first of the MKAC team, Michelle Lee by four seconds.

Three second places for MKAC in the team events

In the team competitions Vauxhall won the Men’s event by seven points over Milton Keynes who were well clear of third-placed Watford. With second, fourth and sixth, Bedford and County easily won the Women’s team race but Milton Keynes teams took the next three places. Another second place for Milton Keynes came in the Veteran Men’s event where they finished just two points behind Vale of Aylesbury.

MKAC details

The Milton Keynes teams comprised of – Men – 2 Richard Nifah 24.13; 7 Andy McKenna 24.43; 20 Alex Bowden 26.19 - Women - 5 Michelle Lee 29.14; 11 Imogen Thornborough 30.58; 14 Sara Cox 32.25. The Women’s B team were 15 Kim McBride 32.37; 16 Jo Benham 33.06; 17 Kerry Farmer 33.9; - with the C team of 20 Di Knight 34.20; 23 Julie Dalzell 35.03; 25 Alli Ratcliffe 35.10. The Veteran Men were 9 Ian Van Lokven 27.08; 11 Phil Jones 27.29; 19 Bob Johnson 29.40.

Other MKAC finishers were 25 Andy Whetstone, 27 Chris Hearn, 37 Edd Alexander, 39 Paul Wright, 51 Phil Macey, 52 Ian Pheasey, 56 Andy Sutton, 68 Phil Feist, 74 Trevor Hook, 84 Matt Baker, 85 Steve Wilkinson, 88 David Abraham, 90 Ian Russell, 92 Andy Stiles, 104 Dave Newens, 109 Phil Winfield, 115 Steve Rice, 119 Kevin Connolly, 120 Lee Hope, 124 Alex Walliker, 132 Chas Herbert, 137 Sean Judge, 148 John Wright, 159 Ron Winter, 171 Jim Miller, 175 Les Paul, 182 Eddie Hill, 186 Rosemary Muston, 187 Lisa Broderick, 201 Roger Hall, 205 Chris Herman, 206 Diane Baldwin, 217 Mike English, 229 Jim Lawrence, 233 Carl Baldwin, 235 R Lowden, 237 Sarah Norgate, 250 Tony Byrne, 252 Wendy Cox, 253 Dave Storer, 254 Debbie Hindmarch, 263 Chris Daniells, 277 Jim McKellar, 282 Milf Callow, 289 Julie McPheat, 293 Joanne James, 299 Brian Graves, 302 Christine Pennell, 313 Deborah Lambert, 324 Val Russell and 340 Marie Boardman.

Youngsters shine at Kettering

Thirty miles or so North of Milton Keynes, the younger members of Milton Keynes Athletic Club won three races and three team events at Kettering. There were individual wins for Under 13s Jodie Sweet and Grant Tilley along with Under 15 Charlie Gaspar. The Under 13 Teams won their events, as did the Under 11 Boys. Only two Girls competed in the Under 11 event, with excellent runs from the two nine-year-olds, resulting in fifth place Shannon Hayes just two seconds ahead of sixth-placed Joanna Livesey. For the Under 11 Boys, a fine run by Sam Winters took second place with third place going to Ross Green and sixth to Peter Bentley. Just outside the scoring team in seventh was Liam Brown, with Ryan Parker 19th.

Team and individual wins for the Under 13s

The Under 13 Girls team had a flying start thanks to a superb win by Jodie Sweet, and then tight packing by seventh Lianne Brook, eighth Laurelle Stephens and ninth Amy Smith, ensured the team win. A clean sweep by the Under 13 Boys team lifted the Gold thanks to Grant Tilley first, Duncan Taylor second and Joshua Lyman third. Also competing well but outside the scoring team were eighth Jack Rooney, ninth Steven Whitfield, tenth Kris Ledgard and 19th Neil Sigllechner. A third runner in the Under 15 Girls event would almost certainly have earned team medals for the Club but Charlie Gasper’s excellent win was backed up only by a fine eighth place by Fiona McLachlan and hence no team prize. Only Lucy Morton competed in the Under 17 Women’s race where she was placed 5th.