A busy weekend of road races saw Shrewsbury Athletic Club athletes competing in the Shrewsbury 10K, Stafford Half Marathon and Wrexham Running Festival. At the Shrewsbury 10K, over 2000 runners took to the streets around the challenging course, partly rerouted due to flooding, with Club performance of the day going to Sara Willhoit, first in the Womens' Race, with age category victories for Paul Jones, 1^st Veteran Over 45 and Pete Savill, 1st Veteran Over 65 and seven Club runners in the first twenty finishers. In the Stafford Half Marathon, Stewart Farley finished 56^th in a personal best time of 83/31 and Kevin Francis 57^th and 2^nd Veteran Over 50 in 83/39. There were individual successes for the three Club runners competing in the Wrexham Running Festival, in the 20 Mile Race, Pete Middleton finished 3^rd and 2^nd Veteran Over 35 in 2/02/06 and Richard Mckenna 4^th and 1^st Veteran Over 40 in 2/02/41, with Carl Aveyard 4^th and 2^nd Veteran Over 35 in 1/19/10 in the Half Marathon. Zach Mckenna finished 2^nd in a Junior 800m in 2/50. It proved to be a weekend of victories for Sara Willhoit who, the day before the Shrewsbury 10K, finished 1^st in the Womens' Race in the 20/20 Fission 20 Mile Race in Gloucestershire in 2/12/45, part of her final preparations for the Boston Marathon next month.

Shrewsbury 10K Results:

5 Paul Jones 34/04(1^st Veteran Over 45), 9 Jamie Lambie 34/59, 12 Scott Hall 35/19(PB), 13 Nick Bradley 35/31, 16 Jake Milovsorov 36/50, 19 Sara Willhoit 37/32(1^st Lady), 20 Calvin Hignett 37/19, 32 Matt Wooden 39/13(PB), 44 Simon Cole 40/00, 56 Richard Jones 40/43, 65 Haydn Jones 41/13, 91 Pete Savill 41/59(1^st Veteran Over 65), 351 Alan Dean 46/29, 412 Michael Inpong 48/11, 532 Duncan Rose 50/13.

Senior and Junior Club athletes competed as part of Shropshire teams at the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships at Loughborough. Pete Middleton led the Shropshire Senior Mens' squad home in 184^th place in 38/04, followed by Club colleagues Charlie Rogers 226^th in 39/03, Richard Mckenna 234^th in 39/22, Connor Middleton 247^th in 40/00 and Luke Butler 266^th in 40/41. The Senior Women representing Shropshire were Sara Willhoit 68^th in 42/31, Mel Price 165^th in 46/02 and Lauren Morley 213^th in 48/16. In the Under 13 Girls' Race Olivia Clarke finished 268^th in 15/39, Iris Downes was 100^th in the Under 15 Girls' Race in 16/10, Jude Lins 192^nd in the Under 15 Boys' Race in 15/06 and Ruby Carter and Jess Gunner 98^th in 22/15 and 162^nd in 23/15 respectively in the Under 17 Womens' Race.

In further road running events, Ollie Parry put in an outstanding performance in the Barcelona Marathon, finishing in 158^th place in a personal best time of 2/47/33 in a field of 13,500 runners. At the Chester 10K, Jim Hickinbottom smashed his personal best time for the distance, finishing 7^th and 3^rd Veteran Over 45 in a time of 33/16, guaranteeing qualification for the England Masters' 10K team competing in the Great Birmingham 10K next month. Nick Bradley finished 32^nd in 35/32, Chris Wakeman 247^th in 43/31 and Michael Inpong 1113^th in 51/03.

Colin Perry clocked 1/38/12 at the Liverpool Half Marathon, running as a guide for friend Alan Lock, as part of their preparations for the London Marathon where they are raising money for the charity Blind Veterans UK. Pete Butler finished in 1/48/58 in the same race.

Report by Tony Scales.