Autumn Handicap, 29th October 2018
It was a cold night down on the Quayside but at least it was dry with little wind, which made a pleasant change for our 46 runners after some of our recent weather! Once again we welcomed numerous guests (old friends and new ones), which always adds a bit of interest (especially for the handicapper!).
Saying that, I think a couple of Claremont ladies fooled the handicapper as Alison Smullen romped home well clear of the field, followed by Hyemi Shin who has obviously been hiding her talent in her first few weeks with the club! In 3rd place was the super-speedy Jonny Evans whose time of 21:27 was the 2nd fastest ever on the Quayside course. Well done to all 3! Jonny also managed to prevent a female clean sweep as he was the only male in the first 6, with Abi Winfield, Lucy Dunbar and Alice Vialard being 4th, 5th and 6th respectively.
The Autumn Cup was closely fought with less than 20 seconds separating the 3 contestants, but the trophy went to Luke Woodend just ahead of Richard Slack and Hazel Juggins. Luke will have the chance to defend his title in January when his opposition will be Hazel (again) and David Lydall.
As mentioned above, fastest on the night was the ridiculously fast Jonny Evans. Jonny runs with Claremont and Jarrow and second fastest was another Jarrow runner, and friend of Claremont, Anton Mirafsari in 23:13. Jason Hall completed the sub-24 minute trio with an impressive time of 23:30 on his first handicap outing – definitely one to watch for the future!
Hannah Mainprize was fastest lady on the night in a time of 26:20 followed by Sarah Kerr (26:35) and Catherine Young (28:10). I am sure Catherine’s actual time was faster but she missed her start time after an over-lengthy warm-up – I bet that’s the last time she listens to Roberto!
As ever, many thanks to the numerous marshals and start/finish team for their enthusiastic support despite the cold.
Thanks to Dave Manners for photos of the runners and Mungai for the photos in Paradiso.
