Dominant Dom is Shaw-fire winner
YESTERDAY’S 30th running of the Sherwoods Darlington 10k attracted a record field of close to 2,000 entries.
With the winner of the race set to receive an enhanced reward of £600, it was not surprising athletes came from far and wide in the chase for top honours.
Despite that, however, it was local athlete Dominic Shaw who took the top award in the men’s race after coming out on top in a ding-dong battle with Liverpool international Jonny Mellor.
Shaw also managed to pick up a further £500 for breaking the course record.
Once the athletes surged away from the start line in the town’s Horsemarket, Shaw and Mellor were already prominent at the head of affairs together with Gateshead’s Lewis Moses, Abraham Tewelde (Saltwell) and previous winner, Leeds City’s Wondiye Indelbu.
The group steadily pulled away from its rivals and the five were still locked together at the midway point.
With such a high-calibre group, it was not surprising that, after the pace increased, it was track specialist Moses who was the first to give way around the 6k mark.
Surprisingly, next to fall way was Indelbu, the Ethiopian Paralympian silver medallist who had beaten Shaw comfortably in the Middlesbrough Tees Pride 5k.
With three kilometres to go, Shaw and Mellor were stride by stride, with Tewelde, who won the Sunderland City Half-Marathon and finished third in the Blaydon Race, struggling to stay in contention.
After passing the eight-kilometre marker, Shaw made a bid for victory and while he managed to open a gap of 10 metres or so, it was not quite decisive enough – Mellor keeping him within touching distance.
The injection of pace was enough for Shaw to see off the Merseyside visitor and hold the advantage all the way to the line to win by five seconds in a time of 30min 02secs – which dipped under the old figures of 30:06 set in 2011 by Wallsend’s Yarod Hagos.
Shaw, who has his sights on the Great North Run next month, was naturally delighted with his victory – which came as quite a surprise.
Shaw said: “When I looked along the start line and saw Jonny there, I knew it was going to be a tough race.
“I have to be honest, I never expected to get the better of him, although since the Middlesbrough 5k my training has been going really well.
“It is always nice to win any race but to pick up the boosted prize money and the bonus for breaking the course record is not a bad day’s work.
“After this, I am doing the Gateshead 5k and the Great North Run where hopefully I will do better than last year.”
After Shaw, Mellor finished a comfortable second and was followed home by Tewelde, Indelbu, Moses and Salford’s Marc Brown, who had moved through the field in the second half of the race to finish sixth.
The women’s race proved a gun-to-finish success for Leeds City’s Emma Clayton, who always held the upper hand – although Catherine Taylor was never far behind.
The Yorkshire athlete, a hill and fell-running international, finished in 35th position overall with Taylor just two places and 21 seconds behind.
Birtley’s Tracy Millmore ended a comfortable third with Steph Pattinson (Jarrow and Hebburn) moving up into fourth in the closing stages after easing ahead of Darlington’s Louise Talman. LEADING RESULTS – Men: 1 D Shaw (NMske) 30:02; 2 J Mellor (Liv) 30:07; 3 A Tewelde (Salt) 30:22; 4 W Indelbu (LeedsC) 30:27; 5 L Moses (Gates) 30:55; 6 M Brown (Salf ) 31:16; 7 L GambleThompson (NMske) 31:38; 8 A Wiles (NMske) 32:06; 9 M Joyeux (Quak) 32:07; 10 D Jenkin (DurC) 32:39; 11 T Charlton (TyneBr) 32:40; 12 E Brhane (Darl) 33:10; 13 R Scott (R&Z) 33:13; 14 M Hornsby (DurC) 33:14; 15 J Prest (Traff) 33:16. Women: 1 E Clayton (LeedsC) 35:13; 2 C Taylor (Unatt) 35:33; 3 T Millmore (Birt) 36:15; 4 S Pattinson (J&H) 37:45; 5 L Talman (Darl) 37:52; 6 A Smith (Sund) 38:32; 7 A Matthews (Darl) 38:41; 8 C Price (Birt) 38:47; 9 A Foster (Teesd) 39:46; 10 A Owen (Loft&W) 40:32; 11 L Graham (W40, Birt) 40:36; 12 S Bulman (W40, NMske) 40:51.