Yesterday 3rd February saw the final round of the Up & Running (great name for the sponsor of a walk ;)) sponsored Manx Harriers Winter Walking League.
It was another great series that witnessed lots of improvements from the athletes throughout the colder months and it was great to see the main categories won by a newcomer and a rising star in local athletics.
The 10k series winner was Nicola Quinn who yesterday was over 10 minutes quicker than in the first round in October. She was second on the day behind former Commonwealth Games walker, local running legend and major handicap bandit, Robbie Lambie who affected not to even know he had won when asked after the race.
Victory in the 5k league standings was grasped by Tom Partington who will quickly emerge from his father, Steve’s shadow if he works to add fitness to the excellence of his technique. The walk of the day in this category though was by Danielle Oates who despite struggling through injury over the last few months, was minutes quicker than any of her peers and achieved a new personal best of 27minutes 10 seconds.
Talking of Steve, he was the fastest walker over 10k with 48:31, managing to hold off the attentions of your blogger by 15 seconds, though I’d like to think I made him work for it.
However, we were both eclipsed by Michelle Turner (whose son Jason won the 1k by a street) who clocked an amazing 50:17 and believes she would have been even better if she had realised she was on her last lap. She actually should have topped the World rankings for her age group last year (her best time wasn’t counted for some reason) and that was the second best time of the year so far by a UK athlete.
Photo - pics by Steve Partington
