Green rises to the midnight challenge

Athletics

Ashford & District Road Running Club members seem to relish a challenge.

Following on from Eddie Rodger’s brave but vain bid to complete the West Highland Way ultra marathon last week, Daniel Green finished an excellent 17th in the Midnight Mountain Marathon in South Wales.

He covered the difficult off-road course, including a 4,800 feet ascent across the Brecon Beacons, in 4hr 45min 33sec.

Jon Wells was first home in the Bewl 15 near Tunbridge Wells on Sunday.

He finished 79th from a field of more than 800 runners, covering the 15mile challenging multi-terrain course around the reservoir in a time of 1:49.13.

Robin Butler was 105th (1:52.51), Christine Costiff 357th (2:16.36), Gill O’Connor 367th (2:16.56), Stephen Hickman 590th (2:37.04), and Helen Weeden 698th (2:49.24).

Scott Lynch was eighth in the Cliffe Woods Five Miler on Sunday.

Male vet-40 runner Lynch finished in 31.37, with Adrian Moody (MV50) 20th (35.12).

Julie Foster completed the Simplyhealth Great Newham London 10k in 1:12.53. The race was held in and around the Olympic Stadium, which hosts the London Anniversary Games on Sunday.

The club’s senior men and women both finished second in the latest East Kent inter-club relays over 2.3 miles at Dymchurch last week.

The men were pipped to top-spot, finishing only two seconds behind South Kent Harriers, completing the four-legs in a combined time of 48.49. CJ Latimer ran the opening leg in 12.23, with Robert Latala, quickest of the night (11.33), Trevor Kay ran 12.40, while Jon Pearce finished the final leg in 12.13.

The ladies finished behind Folkestone, leaving them level on points, going to the final leg at Canterbury.

Male vet-40 A and B teams, senior ladies’ B and juniors won their respective categories.

Ashford Athletic Club’s Tyler Adams, 18, came second in the senior boys’ decathlon at the English Athletic Association (ESAA) Combined Events Regional finals in Kingston upon Thames.

As an individual, Tyler – a pupil at Dover Grammar School for Boys – achieved eight personal bests over the two days and increased his overall decathlon PB by over a 1,000 points.

As a team, the Kent decathletes came first with an impressive lead of more than 2,500 points

W-ith these results, Tyler, as an individual, and Kent as a team, qualify for the ESAA Combined Events national finals in September at Stevenage.