Road races: World Half Marathon Championships and Bedford Autodrome Marathon
The World Half Marathon Championships 2020 took place in Gdynia, Poland on 17th October with TVH athletes in both the women’s and men’s races. Ann Marie McGlynn representing Ireland made a fast start, passing 10km in 33:29, finishing in 42nd place in 71:40 a new PB and improving her club record by 19 secs.
In the men’s race Mo Aadan also started well running in a large second group and passed 10km in 29:06, quicker than his official 10km road best. Mo slowed slightly in the second half of the race to finish the 2nd GB athlete in 50th place (out of 117 finishers) in 62:41, just 11 secs outside his best. Mo was still happy with his run and commented after the race “Our team spirit is and was very, very high. Everyone was up for it. I tried my best to get a PB and got a season’s best instead but I was a little bit out. This is my third time out with the British team and I haven’t seen spirit like this. It’s like all of us have been together for a few months, not days. Everyone is proud to wear this vest and I’m so grateful for our wonderkid (Jake Smith), he’s superman today.” Not far behind Mo in 58th place, Kevin Seaward representing Ireland (who has competed for TVH as a 2nd claim athlete) ran a new PB of 62:58.
Sage Pearce Higgins had entered the London marathon and then the Wrexham marathon organised to replace the London championship race, but that was also cancelled. Sage finally stood on the start line on Sunday 18th October in the Bedford Autodrome marathon, 8 laps of the motor circuit. He was rewarded with a new PB of 2:28:50, nearly 4 mins faster than his time at the 2019 London race and finished in 8th place out of the 200 allowed in the race.