Final preparations underway for return of Easter 10 to the town’s streets
Final preparations are underway for the Maidenhead Easter 10-mile road race which gets underway in the town tomorrow (Friday).
The last two Easter 10s have been staged virtually due to the COVID pandemic, so organisers are extremely excited about its return to the racing calendar. The half-mile race for children reception to year 4 will start from 8.30am, the Easter Mile for children in years 5-8 starts from 8.45am and the Easter 10-mile race gets underway from 9.30am.
Maidenhead Athletic Club's Andrew Lowdon killed two birds with one stone as he completed the Brighton Marathon this month.
Starting in Preston Park this is an extremely tough marathon course and he admitted feeling the impact of a positive COVID test last month in the final miles. He pushed on through the pain and finished in 3.59.59.4, 6/10ths of a second under his four-hour goal.
One of the club's newest members, Peter Hodges also completed the race in a new personal best of 3.18.56, slashing 30 minutes off his previous best time.
Two junior MAC members made it through to the Sportshall National Finals in Colchester on Sunday.
Gabriele D'Orazio represented
Berkshire u13s Boys after winning gold in the regional finals back in February. He helped Berkshire finish second overall. Callum Presnail also finished equal first in the u15s boys AllRounder competition back in February to make the Berkshire team.
Despite feeling under the weather, he decided to take part, winning gold in the 4 Lap competition. He didn't manage a place in the All-Rounder competition but finished fifth overall.
A few MAC athletes also competed in a competition hosted by Wycombe Phoenix Harriers on Sunday.
Maddie Todd won silver in the year 5 girls long jump while Isabella GbajaBiamila won bronze in the Y5 Girls long jump. Lukas McLachlan was a silver medallist in the U13 boys 200m race while Izzy Ratcliffe competed in the long jump, 800m and javelin and Aimee Gbaja-Biamila in the U15 Girls 100m and javelin. She came fifth in the 100m and second in the javelin.
Connor Fitzgibbon took part in the Cadet County Athletics competition on Saturday, finishing third in the shot, second in the discus and first in the high jump, javelin and 1,500m.
It means he will represent Berkshire Cadets in the national competition in June. Steve Gillespie also took part in the 200m, long jump, discus, shot putt and relay winning silver in the long jump and 200m and bronze in the relay.
MAC's multi-sporters headed west for the Newbury Duathlon on Saturday, an event which comprised a 5K run, a 25K bike ride and another 5K run.
Results by bib number: Lara Edmonstone-West 2:22:00; Chris Ellis 1:52:46; Rosie Ellis 2:19:29; Anthony Hall
1:44:36; Lesley Kernaghan 2:06:36; Chris Lewington 1:57:57; Alice Robinson 2:04:27.
Finally, Linda Szulc completed the Big Flat Runway Race near York on Sunday. She was pleased to come 20th out of 30 in a time of 1.37.52.