With road races on hold due to coronavirus, racing organisations have been staging virtual races to enable runners to continue to compete and Shrewsbury Athletic Club runners have been taking part in a number of these virtual events.

A team of three Club runners finished 7^th out of over 150 teams in the first ever England Athletics Virtual 5K Road Running Championships. With the original 5K Championships cancelled due to coronavirus, England Athletics launched a virtual version of the race, resulting in over 1700 runners racing over a three day period, submitting their times and providing evidence of their run post race using GPS data. There was instant success for two new Club recruits, with the successful team comprising newcomer Matthew Costello fastest for the Club in 39^th overall, Paul Jones 51^st and newcomer Sam Western 62^nd. There were top 20 placings in the age categories, with Paul Jones 2^nd Veteran Over 50, Sam Western 6^th Male Under 20, Matthew Costello 7^th Veteran Over 35, Richard Mckenna 12^th Veteran Over 40 and Sara Willhoit 16^th Senior Woman.

Results: 39 Matthew Costello 15/15, 51 Paul Jones 15/22, 62 Sam Western 15/31, 132 Jake Milovsorov 16/17, 147 Richard Mckenna 16/26, 338 Adam Burgoyne 17/34, 356 Jonathan Bucke 17/39, 387 Sara Willhoit 17/48, 423 Antonio Gasparinho 17/59, 728 Matt Wooden 19/30, 849 Haydn Jones 20/00.

In the European Masters Athletics Virtual 10K Challenge, Pete Savill finished 51^st and 3^rd Veteran Over 65 in 42/09 and was the third team member of the Great Britain team of three which won the Veteran Over 65 category event.

In the British Masters Virtual 5K relays, the team of Haydn Jones, Pete Savill and Chris Wakeman finished 32^nd out of 76 teams in the Veteran Over 55 category.

Results: 67 Carl Aveyard 15/58, 141 Richard Mckenna 16/31, 537 Adam Burgoyne 17/55, 687 Antonio Gasparinho 18/17, 829 Pete Hughes 18/41, 1240 Haydn Jones 19/46, 1262 Pete Savill 19/51, 1750 Chris Wakeman 21/16.

Picture. Matthew Costello. Courtesy of Gareth Bellamy Sports.