Thursday evening, July 3rd at Kedington, near Haverhill: In the 4th of 6 fixtures of the Arkwright & Co/Turners 5K League Newmarket Joggers (NJ) women’s team put on a dazzling display to finish 1st of the 8 clubs in the league. Our top 5 female finishers (Kirsty McDermott 18:39, Isabelle Talbot-Price 19:15, Sarah Osborne 19:49, Cerys Bithell 19:56 and Carol Cienna Carter 21:05) came home in 1st, 3rd, 6th. 8th and 10th position in a total field of 119 female runners, just ahead of the league leaders Cambridge & Coleridge AC (C&C). This win puts our women’s team up to 2nd place in the league, while C&C still retain their lead in both women’s and men’s competitions after 4 fixtures. However, it could be a close call by the final fixture at Cambridge in August, if the current momentum can be maintained.
Above: Joggers at Haverhill Arkwright/Turners 5K League fixture. Thanks for team photo.
NJ men’s team finished 6th of 8 clubs at Haverhill and now stand =5th of 8 in their table. Our top 5 male finishers (Mark Hayward 16:43, James Smith 17:39, Paul Holley 18:20, Jason Bevan 18:37 and Jack Imrie 19:09) came home in 13th, 30th, 38th, 42nd and 55th positions in a total field of 234 male runners. They put in good efforts, but were up against an extremely high standard of running, especially from C&C, who had 8 finishers in the top 10 places. Overall, NJ had a turnout of 23 female and 32 male runners, who all helped to reduce the total aggregate position scores of their top five women and men respectively, by one point per runner. Thus every partaking club member, no matter where they finished, helped to improve the score of their team.
In the Junior 2km race at Kedington, we had 3 Joggers competing. Sophie Blundell (08:16, 5th of 36 overall, 2nd F of 21, 1st girl aged U13) put in a great effort, as did Esther Eaton (09:48, 7th F, 1st girl U11). Oliver Hilton (11:17, 30th overall, 4th U11B) put in a good effort as third Jogger to finish. We look forward to the next fixture at Carver Barracks, Saffron Walden on Thursday evening, July 17th.
Above, from left: Wendy Ancill, Olivia Carter, Sarah Osborne, Jimmy Smith; Jeremy Reader walking behind.
Above, from left: Chris Underwood and Mark Hayward with Kirsty.
Above, from left: Helen Hilario, Paul Holley, Kirsty McDermott, Cienna Carter, new member Isabelle Talbot-Price(?); behind are Jo Bouttell, Chris Aylmer, Andy Fryatt, Liam Elvidge and one or two others. Thanks to Kirsty for the selection of excellent photos taken at the Arkwright/Turners 5K at Haverhill.
On Friday evening, July 4th, it was the final fixture of the Friday 5 Series at Great Bentley in Essex. Five Joggers were competing. First home was Mark Hayward (27:12 PB, 2nd of 392 overall), from Joey Bendall (27:35 PB, 5th, 1st of 30 in M40), both in great PB form and taking away trophies. Hannah Pollard (34:53 SB, 11th F of 132, 2nd of 18 in F40) and Brian Munns (41:41 SB, 244th, 14th in M60) were both in season’s best form, followed by a good effort by Jim Withers (51:58, 364th, 7th in M70+). Looking at the Friday 5 Series awards over the 6 summer fixtures (best of 4 races counted), NJ Neville Clarke did well to win first place trophy in the M70+ age category, while NJ Caroline Mcintosh came third in F70+. Jim Withers was unlucky to finish 4th of 22 in M70+, just outside the trophies.
Above: Joey Bendall with M40 trophy. Thanks for photo.
On Sunday, 6th July, it was the annual Ekiden Relays event at Ipswich High School in Woolverstone, organised by Ipswich Jaffa running club. In this event, running clubs from all around East Anglia were invited to enter teams of six, to run a marathon in relays of six legs (1 x 7.2km, 3 x 5km, 2 x 10km = 42.2km in total), This is a favourite annual ‘pilgrimage’ for Newmarket Joggers, where there is always a fun atmosphere, with club gazebos lining the 2.5km route over grass, gravel and hard path in the school grounds.
Above: Ipswich High School, where the event took place over multiple 2.5km laps in the school grounds. Thanks for photo.
There were 205 x 6-person teams competing in all. NJ entered 5 teams of 6 in the following categories: 2 x Mixed (men & women), 1 x Male 50+, 1 x Female 45+, 1 x Mixed 60+. Our best performing team by far, was one of our mixed teams, which contained the fastest 3 women and 3 men available in the club. They won the category outright, finishing 1st of 77 mixed teams overall and clocking a marathon time of 2:40:19. The members were Kirsty McDermott (7.2km, 27:22), Sarah Osborne (5km, 19:58), Cerys Bithell (5km, 20:31), Mark Hayward (10km, 35:49), Jimmy Smith (10km, 37:16) and Jason Bevan (5km, 19:20). To top it all, Kirsty won 1st place trophy for the fastest time recorded by a female runner over the 7.2km leg.
Above, from left: Three of the winning NJ mixed team: Kirsty McDermott, Jimmy Smith and Mark Hayward with all 6 trophies. Cerys Bithell, Sarah Osborne and Jason Bevan not in photo; Kirsty with prize for fastest female in 7.2km; her trophies close up.
Above: In action from left: Kirsty McDermott; Jimmy Smith; Jim Withers; Caroline Mcintosh. Thanks for Strava photos.
The Male 50+ team (2:59:36, 4th of 11)) and the Female 45+ team (3:27:23, 4th of 9) also did well, just missing trophies. A great time was had by all NJ runners, with lots of picnic food available in the club gazebo, generously brought to the event by members. A big hit were the rival oat flapjacks, handmade by Tom Elton and Rob Hawkins.
Above: More shots of the general scene later in the day..
Also on Sunday, at Ferry Meadows, Peterborough, the Zig Zag ‘Summer Ready Run’ multi-lap running event took place. Rachael Maltpress did very well to gain a PB in the 8 x 5.3km laps Marathon, clocking her best ever time of 4:27:07 PB. Her nearest to that was 4:34:05 in the Brighton Marathon 2024. All her many long distance training runs had obviously paid dividends. Her husband Adam Maltpress was there to support her and also ran in the ’10K’, which was actually a quarter marathon distance of 2 x 5.3km laps, or 10.6km; his time was 45:23.
Above: Rachael with marathon medal; by the Zig Zag flag; with husband Adam. Thanks for great photos.
TRACK, FIELD AND RACE WALK NEWS
The results are not yet through for the East Anglian League meeting at Peterborough on Sunday. However, we do now have the results for the EMAC meeting at Peterborough on Tuesday evening 1st July, where we joined forces with Saint Edmund Pacers (NJ/SEP). The results were way better than expectations and we had a good turnout of runners. The NJ/SEP women’s team came 3rd of 5 clubs on the night and now stands 4th in the league, after 3 of the 4 fixtures. The men’s team were 4th club on the night and also 4th of 5 after 3 fixtures.
Highlights for Newmarket Joggers came in the One Mile track event. Elke Hausler (6:09.7, 1st of 4 in W60-69, age grade 95.43%) and Carol Cienna Carter (6:09.1, 1st of 5 in W50-59, 85.34%) were so close on time and both put in tremendous performances with impressive age grades. Cienna also ran in the 400m (80.7s, 1st of 5 in W50-59, 74.80%). They all enjoyed the 4 x 100m relays, with Elke and Cienna + 2 SEPs clocking 71.0s and finishing 2nd of 4 teams. For the men, Shane Mcandrew achieved a PB in the 100m (13.4s, 75.49%) though not as a scoring athlete. Then he promptly achieved another PB in the 400m (57.4s, 3rd of 5 in M35, 79.27%), this time scoring for the team; it was his highest ever age grade to date. Richard Defries also competed in the 400m (66.4s, 2nd of 4 in M50-59, 76.08%) and in the One Mile (5:37.9, 3rd of 5 in M50-59, 77.18%), recording his highest ever age grade in the latter. Adam Maltpress, Phil Blundell, Shane Mcandrew and 1 x SEP clocked 60.8 in the 4 x 100m, finishing 4th of 5 in M35+.
Field events: Shot Put: Rachael Maltpress (4.77m, 5th), Adam Maltpress (5.37m PB, 5th). Hammer: Adam Maltpress (10.97 PB, 5th, so progress for Adam.
On Saturday, it was the annual 5-mile Moulton Race Walk, over country roads in Moulton near Newmarket, which was where our local, well-known Olympian race walker Callum Wilkinson was brought up. He was there to present the prizes for this event, which also included a 3km race walk. They are July fixtures of the Enfield Race Walk League. Several Newmarket Joggers regularly take part in these monthly fixtures, including George Wilkinson (brother of Callum), Suzanne Bailey W60, Lily-Ann Cooper U15G and Sophie Blundell U15G; they were all taking part at Moulton.
George Wilkinson MS (47:08, 3rd of 28) did well to take 3rd place trophy in the 5-mile race, with Suzanne Bailey W60 (60:02, 9th F of 12) putting in a good effort, but just missing out on a sub one-hour time. In the 3km event, Sophie Blundell Age 12 (18:50, 1st of 4, 67.88%) was in excellent form, taking 1st place, with Lily-Ann Cooper Age 13 (22:00, 3rd, 56.97%) posting near her best time. All the Joggers have maintained a somewhat faster walking pace over similar distances this year, showing that an undulating road race is a tougher proposition than a track or flat grass field. 5 miles is not included in age grade tables, being so close to the official 8km (8.05km), which makes precise age grading difficult. Adjusting the above times to those expected for 8km (by a factor of 8/8.05) gives estimated times of 46:50 for George and 59:40 for Suzanne, working out at 62.85% and 69.22% respectively; that’s not official, of course. The 5-mile race distance seemed accurate, with Suzanne recording 5.00 miles.
Above, on the podium from left: Edson George Wilkinson, 2nd in 5-mile; Sophie Blundell 1st in 3km; Lily-Ann Cooper 3rd in 3km; Callum Wilkinson, the award presenter and accomplished Olympic race walker. On right: Sophie receiving her trophy from Callum.