The fourth event in the club Grand Prix campaign took place yesterday, at the Wimbledon Dash 5k. The race also doubled as our club 5k Championship and we had a good turnout from our members again – with only Ranelagh Harriers having more runners in attendance than 26.2

 

Picture credit: Ellen Lambrix

 

It’s fair to say that despite the 9.30am start, it was an extremely hot day for racing and prior to the race most runners were sheltering in the pleasantly cool grandstand before making their way down to the track ready for the off. There were 252 runners in total and most of the local clubs were represented with only two unattached runners in the entire field.

For those who haven’t run this event before, the race starts with a single lap of the Wimbledon Park Athletics track before setting off out into Wimbledon itself. An early welcome sight was the always-glorious All England Tennis Club, looking resplendent in the summer sun. Slightly less welcome than that was a very steep hill at the 2k mark, which no doubt seemed to go on for age for the majority of competitors. As the saying goes though, what goes up must come down and down it did. The route wound its way back down towards the park, round the perimeter and past the junior parkrun event which was being held at the same time before the final 300m on the track and into the finish funnel.

I’d imagine most runners had drunk their full supply of water after their warm up so the ice cold cans of soft drink and barrels of water at the finish line were most welcome indeed. Almost as welcome as the ever delicious cakes that Ann Bath once again brought along – thanks Ann!

 

The mens winner was John Sanderson from Guildford and Godalming AC in a time of 0:15:56

The ladies champion was Steph McCall from South London Harriers in a time of 0:17:12

Full results can be viewed here

 

More importantly of course, our Grand Prix results are as follows

 

Mens Past The Post

Steve Ramek (0:19:00)

Tom Parmiter (0:19:36)

Ryan Lambrix (0:19:51)

Mens Age Graded

Steve Ramek (77.02%)

Ian Callender (75.34%)

David George (73%)

Ladies Past The Post

Libby Marchant (0:21:29)

Alice Tozer (0:22:24)

Sarah Pettefer (0:23:59)

Ladies Age Graded

Ann Bath (78.32%)

Sarah Pettefer (69.70%)

Libby Marchant (68.89%)

 

Steve Ramek and Ian Callander remain top of the tree in the Past The Post and Age Graded competitions respectively.

Sarah Pettefer is sitting pretty in first place of both the Ladies competitions, with Andrea Bennett also second place in both.

Updated GP tables are available for download here

 

Next up in the Grand Prix season is of course The Barns Green Half Marathon on Sunday 27th September – entries are selling fast so do go to their website here to enter now!