THERE ARE a host of joggers and runners from around the borough who are now making their final preparations for the London Marathon on Sunday April 21st. YT will be catching up with a number of the runners over the next two weeks as they face the mighty challenge of 26 miles and 385 yards.
TILBURY-based hurdler, Robbie Clarricoats has been steadily blazing a trail in the athletics world for some years now. Robbie has been competing in athletics since 2008 and specialises in the sprint hurdles and competes this year in the U20 age group.
AT the Braintree 5 on Sunday the outstanding performance from the Harriers came from Mick Bumstead. The former County 20 mile and marathon champion won the 60+ section of the race comfortably with a time of 30m15s. The injury plagued Corringham athlete produced his best performance for many months in good conditions and on the attractive Braintree course.
OVER 300 athletes turned out for the Good Friday Crown to Crown 5K including 14 runners from Thurrock Harriers.Harriers were led by Nick Houghton who finished fourth in 17m 21s.
THURROCK Harriers youngsters are proving to be strong competitors this season already. A hardy bunch were competing on Easter Sunday at Lee Valley and produced some fantastic results. Daniel Knight kicked things off with a solid 8.88s 60m which is just outside his personal best swiftly followed by Jessica Smith running a 9.24s. Daniel then ran an impressive personal best in the 200m with a time of 29.61s.
IN WINTRY conditions, Thurrock athletes enjoyed success at the Brentwood Half Marathon on Sunday.
There were concerns that the race might be called off as there was a dusting of snow on the roads and pavements.Veteran Scott Rice finished seventh in a great time of 1:16:31. David Johnson came 43rd in 1:24.02. Jason Syrett came 77th in 1:29:17.
A Fourth place from David Johnson was the highlight of the Thurrock Harriers' performances at the St Clare's Hospice 10K. The course in Hastingwood near to Harlow is a demanding one with lots of twists and turns and sneaky inclines that can test the best of runners.
THE Essex Road Relay Championships held on Saturday at Chelmsford attracted strong fields in both the men and women's teams.
Thurrock's senior ladies fielded 2 good teams which finished 7th and 9th in the 27 strong field of the teams who finished the race. Outstanding in the A team was Toni Noble who recorded 23m54s for the 6k course. This is her best race for many months and an indication that she is in sub 40m form for the 10k. On Saturday she was supported by Victoria Peacock 27m 08s and Sam Cox 27m43s.
STANFORD'S Hayley McLean's winter season just got better as she took gold at the women's under-20 400 metre champs in Birmingham.nThe Chelmsford AC athlete clocked a personal best of 55.19s.
The England Athletics indoor championships were held at National Indoor Arena Birmingham over two days and local Thurrock Harrier James Pearson attended. Multi-eventer James came away with two medals from the national championships.
ON Saturday a handful of young Harriers competed at Lee Valley in the South East Pentathlon. They all worked really hard throughout the course of the day and enjoyed an exhausting and challenging day. Seniz Jessiner really pushed herself during her 1st competition with solid performances in high jump (1.26m) and long jump (3.61m). Liam Barnard ran a great 60m hurdles with a personal best time of 11.34s. Liam also ran an extremely gutsy 800m and another pb of 2:50.86s.
JON Metcalf proved his amazing versatility at the weekend by winning the 400m race at the London Indoor Games just a fortnight after picking up his medal in the over 50s section for the Essex Cross Country League. Jon judged his effort well and recorded 60.04 to beat several younger competitors. On the following day he recorded 2m14.8s on the 800m. Although pleased with this time Jon felt he could have judged his race tactics better.
WHEN in future tough cross country courses are discussed wizened old runners will say: 'Ah! but did you do Hadleigh in 2013'. Hadleigh Downs is a tough undulating course at any time of the year but on Saturday the treacherous uphill and downhill stretches were punctuated by ankle deep, glutenous mud. Falls were frequent, shoes were lost and scrambling on all fours a common sight. Nonetheless hundreds of runners finished and these included 30 Thurrock Harriers.
THURROCK'S seniors were again out in force for the 4th round of the Essex Cross Country League at Basildon on Saturday.
Best performance of the day came from 41 year old Scott Rice who in finishing in 30th place beat the newly crowned Essex veteran's cross country champion Alan Smalls of Colchester.
