Distances from 100m to 100km on Ryston Runners AC menu

Distances from 100m to 100km were on the Ryston Runners AC menu over the weekend.

Covering 100km were Graeme Leeson and Neil Stapleton in the Positive Steps Norfolk 100K event, which started with a lap of Castle Acre then followed Peddars Way and the Norfolk Coast Path. Graeme completed the course in 22nd place in 12:48:16 while Neil’s debut at this distance saw him come 23rd in 13:05:29.

The previous day, Friday, Eamonn McCusker, still battling against a lingering cough, took part in the Grantham Solstice 10K.

He was unable to take advantage of having just turned 65 as the age group in this event were in 10 year bands, so was seventh out of 42 M60-69 competitors, overall 223rd out of 800, in 48:22. He said this was a well-organised event on a gently undulating course, after his recent poor experience of the Huddersfield Marathon.

Four other club members competed on Sunday in the Humpty Dumpty 10K organised by Gt Yarmouth Road Runners. James O’Neill was third overall in 33:52, gaining a County Silver medal in the Senior Men’s category.

Lorena Latisaite ran 42:24 for 98th place, and outsprinted a regular rival to the line. Martin Blackburn and Keith Morris finished within under half a minute of each other but 17 places apart, Martin 339th in 52:18 and Keith 356th in 52:41.

Ryston Runners travelled to Gillingham in Kent for the third match in their 2018 Southern Athletics League campaign, performing brilliantly to beat mid-table rivals Thurrock to finish third.

The Ryston women finished first out of the four clubs there. This was down to some excellent performances, notably by Lydia Growns and Mel Reed, who racked up a lot of points between them. Lydia won the 3000m (11:20.3) and Steeple Chase, plus second in the 1500m (5:01.9) and third in the 800m with a new PB of 2:24.3. Mel won the B String 800 (2:33), High Hurdles and Steeple Chase, as well as finishing second in the Pole Vault and 3rd in the 400m.

New faces performed well, with Lauren Moyse leaping to 1.47m in High Jump for second, as well as sprinting 14.1 in the 100m and jumping 4.56m in Long Jump. Saffron Teasdale had second place B String finishes with 1.35m in High Jump and 73.1 in her first ever 400m race.

Thea Howlett had a trio of second spot finishes, in Long Jump (5.20m PB), Triple Jump (10.37m), and Javelin (27.41m).

Rosie Booth had a couple of wins in the B String with 5:32 in the 1500m and 11:55 in the 3000m. Rebecca Tuff picked up several points in a wide range of events, including winning B String Pole Vault, second 400 Hurdles and Javelin. Katy Tuncar finished second in both Hurdles, and Gaye Clarke threw an impressive 21.62m in the Hammer for third.

For the men, Ben Keeley performed well in his first track outing for the club, running 60.3 for 400m, 2:12 in 800m and 4:47 in the 1500m. Robert Simmonds and Gareth Hunt covered the majority of the field events, Robert’s highlight was winning the Pole Vault (3.10m) as well as placing second in the Steeple Chase, Discus (33.31m) and Hammer.

Gareth was second in the Triple Jump (11.99m) as well as throwing 3cm short of his PB in the Discus with 28.81m, and clearing 1.75m in High Jump.

Mac Turner ran a fast 54.5 in the 400m to finish third.

Adam Matthews performed well in the 800m (2:09.3), 5000m (17:13.5) and Steeple Chase.

Martin Ive made up a place on the final lap of the 5000m to finish third B String. Rob MacQueen ran 24.5 in the 200m and Ian Hogarth cleared 2.10m in the Pole Vault.

Cath Duhig ended her Spanish competition season in rather disappointing fashion as the recurrence of an old injury forced her to slow considerably in a 5000m “Control” walking event at Elda in Alicante province, recording her slowest time over the distance for some months (32:23) and causing concern with regard to her build up for the World Masters Championships in September.

A goodly number of Ryston Runners turned out to support the club’s Welfare Officer, Mick Ennis, at the “Beat the Tide” event in Hunstanton on Sunday, in aid of the Stroke Association. There were 5K and 10K options, both involving significant quantities of mud and several runners ended up barefoot. Nic Bensley had the honour of completing the transition of the terrain ahead of everyone else, and with his club vest still remarkably clean.