Bishop's Stortford Running Club: Ward and Clancey claim maximum championship points in St Albans Half

Championship points were up for grabs for Bishop's Stortford Running Club (BSRC) members competing in the 40th anniversary St Albans Half at the weekend.

The 13.1-mile half-marathon takes place alongside the country’s only chip-timed walking half, with a slightly different course and separate results.

The well-organised event was hot and hilly throughout on pretty countryside lanes and had the bonus of an ice lolly for all finishers.

First home in the BSRC colours of green and gold to claim the full 50 points in the men’s competition was Henry Ward in 1:27.20. Emily Clancey took the 50 points in the women’s race, finishing in 1:43.45.

Thomas Wilton (1:46.35) and Mike Grant (1:47.09) followed shortly behind. Marie Hockley crossed the line in 1:55.43 and Jenny Brayshaw in 2:28.00. Cathy Dutta, entering the running race for the first time having previously completed the walking half, clocked 2:31.33.

In the walking half, Monika Simonaityte powered round in 3:17.27 to finish 36th from 265 competitors.

Last Thursday several BSRC members took advantage of a one-off opportunity to run the new M11 junction 7a race prior to the junction's opening on Friday evening.

The event was organised by Essex County Council and Harlow Running and Tri Club, and used Mark Hall Sports Centre as race HQ.

The out-and-back route of around four miles took the field along Gilden Way to the new road infrastructure, using the dumbbell roundabouts at the junction as the turnaround point.

The BSRC contingent included Lee Pickering, Nick Yeadon, Steven Vale, Fay Dodgen, Serena Beresford, Theresa Burke, Andrew Farmery and Simon Dewhurst.

Junior Luke Dunham won two 1500m races in five days. He ran 4min 21sec last Monday (June 6) at the Leeds British Milers Club and followed this up on Saturday (June 11) with a time of 4.22 to win the U15B Herts schools race, where he was representing The Bishop's Stortford High School, by 20 seconds.