Leamington C&AC trio claim individual honours at Rugby 10

Blower topped the senior women’s category, while Barr won the junior women’s series.

Blower had already done enough in previous showings to wrap up her gold medal before Sunday’s race whereas Barr had started the day in third place in her category.

Making it a family affair was Zara’s mother Carol, who secured silver in the women’s veteran 45 category.

Another high-flyer from the Leamington club was Jenny Jeeves, who catapulted herself to the silver- medal position in the women’s V35 category.

The final race was the Rugby 10, starting and finishing in the village of Barby.

Officially acknowledged to measure 10.21 miles, it was won by Leamington C&AC’s Richard Harper in 55:51.

Kenilworth Runners’ Phil Gould was second, clocking 57:38 despite still having his Leicester Marathon exertions in his legs, while teammate Andrew Siggers (58:22) was third.

Harper led for most of the race, having pulled away from Siggers after the first mile.

“The first four miles were nice, then we turned into the wind,” said Harper. “Up to mile seven was really tough and I also started feeling quite bad, but after that I felt good again and pushed on. I think my half way time was 27:44.”

More used to five miles and 10ks, the Loughborough graduate only decided to run the Rugby 10 in the week leading up to the race.

“I’m entered into the London Marathon next year, so I thought I’d better start doing some longer distances,” he said.

Runners’ Mike Johnson was the first Warwickshire V45 with 61:45 and Mick Williams’ 66:31 earned him an age-graded performance second.

Spa Striders took second place in both the ladies’ and men’s team races, with Melissa Venables third in the women’s race in 1:11:18.

Rugby 10: 1, Richard Harper (Leamington C& AC) 55:51; 2, Phil Gould (Kenilworth Runners) 57:38; 3, Andrew Siggers (Kenilworth Runners) 58:22; 5, Mike Johnson (Kenilworth Runners) 1:01:24; 9, Rich Shephard (Spa Striders) 1:02:11; 10, Martin Dorrill (Kenilworth Runners) 1:02:23; 11, Mark Urbanowski (Spa Striders) 1:03:49; 13, Stephen Hundal (Leamington C&AC) 1:04:35; 17, Trevor Wilkinson (Spa Striders) 1:05:48; 18, Nick Tawney (Leamington C&AC) 1:06:01; 21, Mick Williams (Kenilworth Runners) 1:06:31; 27, Clive Pearce (Kenilworth Runners) 1:07:44; 28, Will Johnson (Spa Striders) 1:08:28; 35, Melissa Venables (Spa Striders) 1:11:18; 49, Mike Ellis, Spa Striders) 1:13:55; 53, Stephen Webb (Leamington C&AC) 1:14:04; 57, Hartwig Busch (Spa Striders) 1:14:44; 64, Zara Blower (Leamington C&AC) 1:16:24; 65, Richard King (Spa Striders) 1:16:35; 67, Bethan Gwynn (Spa Striders) 1:16:42; 73, Vicki Smith (Spa Striders) 1:17:33; 84, Dawn Clark (Spa Striders) 1:20:00; 88, Nadine Fleckenstein (Spa Striders) 1:21:20; 92, Ros Matthews, (Kenilworth Runners); 1:21:54; 95, Sally Hicks (Kenilworth Runners) 1:22:13; 99, Jenny Jeeves (Leamington C&AC) 1:23:00; 102 Tom Dable (Kenilworth Runners) 1:23:34; 104, Faye Barr (Leamington C&AC) 1:24:13; 111, C Davison (Leamington C&AC) 1:26:52; 112, Sean Lonergan (Spa Striders (1:27:01); 114, Helen Tudge (Spa Striders) 1:27:35; 116, Sandra Stokes (Spa Striders) 1:28:12; 117, Richard Brookes (Spa Striders) 1:28:32; 129, Arthur Smith (Kenilworth Runners) 1:32:46; 130, Carol Blower (Leamington C&AC) 1:33:20; 137, Samantha Calder (Kenilworth Runners) 1:35:41; 138, Pauline Dable (Kenilworth Runners) 1:36:05.

A busy weekend of Midlands road running saw more than 15,000 runners tackle the BUPA Great Birmingham Run.

After being blighted by poor organisation in 2010, the event was brought into the the fold of the Great Run series and relaunched with the legendary Haile Gebrselassie taking top billing.

Following on from the disappointment of his retirement in the Berlin Marathon, the Ethiopian secured a comfortable victory in the Channel Five broadcast event in 61:29.

Kenilworth Runners’ Rich Simkiss secured a large amount of air time, running much of the race near or alongside the eventual women’s winner Gemma Steel.

Simkiss moved clear of Steel at around nine miles and only a stiff climb at 11 miles saw him slow a little. Nevertheless, he was pleased to cross the line in 25th with a new best of 1:12:01.

Pete Matthews was the second runner home for Kenilworth, taking more than two minutes off his half- marathon best to finish in 1:23:59.

Rob Crow also smashed his personal best, coming home in 1:33:52.

Felix Langley was the first Spa Strider home in 1:25:40.

Runners finishers: 449, Jon Mettyear (1:31:06); 1,025 Gwyn Davies (1:37:22); 2,533 Stephen Chalkley (1:47:09); 2,930 Tina Crow (1:49:18).

Striders finishers: Steve Goult (1:26:27); Liam Godbert-Brown (1:33:55); Justin Mallard (1:37:13); Kate Evans (1:43:28); Alex Zoro (1:44:46); Philip Wood (1:50:51); Ben Priestley (1:54:03); Amy Phipps (1:55:03); Harki Kalsi (2:00:55); Barbara Gunter (2:05:11); Ruth Fletcher (2:28:05).

Fresh from a two-week sojourn in Japan and South Korea, where he successfully retained his F1 Track Running World Championship, Kenilworth Runners’ Matthew Kingston-Lee headed to Stroud to take part in the 30th edition of the Stroud Half Marathon.

Kingston-Lee was looking on course to chase down his personal best until strong winds took their toll, but his finishing time of 1:18:08 was a season’s best.