London Marathon and Mini London Marathon 3rd October – 9 TVH Athletes compete in the marathon, Adela and Cameron highest placed of 29 TVH young athletes in mini marathon
Mohamud Aadan prepared for the London Marathon with high hopes of improving on his debut 2:12:20 marathon at Kew Gardens but a disrupted final few weeks of training and a missed drinks station proved Mo’s undoing. Passing halfway in 65:14, Mo slowed after 25km and finished the race in 2:18:19. The next quickest TVH athlete was John Borton, who was very happy with his 2:33:37, better than he expected and a 2 min improvement on previous best time from Boston in 2019. Sage Pearce-Higgins was not in shape to get near his 2:28 PB from last year but was happy to run 2:40:05 and Calum Nicol was also happy with his time of 2:52:54 after suffering injury problems. Two athletes who weren’t running for quick times were Mat Chataway (3:11:17) after injury problems and limited training and Victoria Carter (3:19:23) in fancy dress and with no specific marathon training.
Chloe Baker was aiming to break 3 hrs and reached halfway in 1:29 but gradually slowed in the second half of the race to finish in 3:10:31, still a good debut marathontime. Kirstie Tew maintained an even pace past the 30km mark and finished in 4:04:59, just 2 mins outside her 2016 PB. Richard Ollington who competes for TVH on the track made a big improvement of 10 mins on his previous race over the distance finishing in 2:24:14, only slowing slightly towards the end with blisters.
Mini Marathon
29 TVH young athletes in the U13, U15 and U17 age groups competed for their London borough teams racing over the final 2.6km of the marathon course early on Sunday morning. 19 of the athletes ran in the U15 age group with pride of place going to Adela Svihalkova and Cameron McConnon. Adela finished 2nd girl (out of 160) in the London Boroughs Challenge in 8:52 and Cameron 4th boy (out of 134) in 8:13. As well as the London boroughs teams the race featured 12 regional and national teams in the British Athletics Road Championships with Adela (11th overall) and Cameron (17th overall) helping the London teams to second place in both the under 15 girls and boys championship races.
Of the 15 TVH girls In the U15 race the next quickest was Skye Bishop 9:37 and 15th in London, Maya Sutaria 9:55 and 31st in London, followed by Anna Kelly, Eadi Solanki-Jackson and Orla Grist all close together, separated by just 3 secs. Three TVH athletes in the U15 Boys race all ran well. Reggie Rock in 9:14, Louis Moore 9:26 and Harry Greenfields 9:55.
In the U17 races Max Bishop was the fastest TVH athlete on the day with 8:07 and 10th place in London. Juliet Parson in 9:33 and 23rd out of 135 in London was the fastest TVH athlete in the U17 women’s race, ahead of Charli Edge 9:48 and Eloise Quickenden 9:55.
Guy Parson (9:44) was the quickest of six TVH athletes in the U13 race, with Felix La Trobe Weston finishing in 10:00 and continuing his good series of recent races.
Photos courtesy of Seb Bishop: Adela 500m from the finish and TVH / K&C athletes – Juliet, Max, Charli, Skye, Guy & Adela