Cirencester Athletics Club

Chedworth Roman Trail

CIRENCESTER AC were out in force for last Sunday's popular but demanding Chedworth Roman Trail 10-mile multi-terrain race.

Sunny but breezy conditions together with a very dry course through scenic Cotswold countryside attracted 23 runners from the host club with many more enthusiastically marshalling points along the course.

Pre-race favourite Dave Roper from Cheltenham Harriers led from the start in a bid to break the seven-year-old course record but missed out by less than half a minute. He came home in 57min 21sec, more than a minute ahead of club colleague James Bingham who overtook Dan Lewis over the hilly second half of the course.

Teg Jones from Witney, Denis Galerin from Cirencester and Marc Fallows from Cheltenham had a close contest for the minor places swapping positions over the final miles and covered by 40 seconds at the end. With three in the top six, Cheltenham Harriers were the clear winners of the men's team award.

Top lady finisher was Petra Vynetalova representing Almost Athletes who finished 34th overall in 1:11.57, more than two minutes ahead of her nearest rival and led her club to the ladies' team award.

Cirencester's team of runners were led by Galerin, who finished fifth just missing the hour-mark by four seconds. Another strong run by the improving Howard Ewan saw him home in 15th place in 1:7.10, closely followed by Lawrence Giffin, 20th in 1:8.17 and Joe Barrowclough 27 seconds behind in 23rd place.

The remaining Cirencester finishers were: 31, Mark Gluning (1:10.59); 39, Ed Morris (1:13.12); 43, Neil Corbierre (1:13.26); 45, Chris Simpson (1:13.36); 57, Nathan Barrowclough (1:15.53); 58, Nicola Denning (1:15.54); 65, Daniel Finchett (1:17.40); 66 and first FV45 Sarah Gunn (1:17.41); 79, Andy Hindson (1:18.48); 84, Thomas Dixon (1:19.45); 87, Trudy Compton (1:20.05); 118, Georgina Croxford (1:24.36); 128, Paul Stevens (1:24.36); 151, Rob Forbes (1:28.31); 155, Brian Barrowclough (1:29.15); 169, Anna Barrowclough (1:31.07); 172, Karen Ryland (1:31.52); 180, Sue Brown (1:33.26); 239, Amanda Hart (1:45.51); 252, David Edelsten (1:55.06).

A group of 10 Chedworth residents were led home by an impressive David Quli, 22nd in 1:8.24.

Manchester Marathon

CIRENCESTER AC's leading runner Dave Bell travelled north to make his marathon debut in Manchester.

Following some impressive times in half-marathons and 20-mile races he was hoping for a good time to go close to the club record.

All was going well at half distance and at 20 miles which he passed in 1hr 54min but then the old saying that a marathon starts at 20 miles hit home and he was forced to slow to a jog for the final painful six miles to finish 106th out of nearly 8,000 runners in 2:47.

A RATHER lighter challenge was faced by the club's runners in four other races over last weekend.

Best result came from Dave Wright who was eighth in the Horton Bull Run multi-terrain race.

In the Angels 10km road race near Gloucester, Roy Joslin and Barbara Thomas finished close together in 51.53 and 54.02. As is normal this was Barbara's second race of the weekend as on Saturday she was among 490 runners in the Swindon 5km Park Run where she was second in her age category in 26.21.

Mark Edwards was three minutes ahead of her and Lisa Carenter behind by just a few seconds. Meanwhile Geoff Wells sampled racing in his new surroundings by finishing 19th in the Stockport Park Run.