Golden girl Gibbs

North Herts Road Runners’ Rachel Gibbs raced to a decisive win in the Division One Midweek League fixture held in Epping Forest last Thursday and is now favourite for the league title going in to the final fixture at St Albans on July 2nd.  With every club involved in the battle for supremacy at the top or the relegation fight the ladies’ field of 105 runners featured the best in the county. The course was 6.7 miles featuring a couple of testing hills.  Jo Kent of Barnet bravely ran alongside Rachel for 5 miles but could not hang on when Gibbs put in the decisive burst to make sure of the win.  With Astrid Mc Keown 3^rd, 42.26, Melissa Winters 9^th 44.50, Paula Adams 10^th 44.54, Tash Pitman 16^th 47.07 and Jo Summers 26^th 49.51 the ladies team finished 2^nd on the night and are currently 3^rd overall.

 

Not to be outdone the men also put in their best performance lead home by Luke Humphries who finished 3^rd, 37.28, on his debut in the league.  Steve McKeown also ran well to finish 19^th, 40.08, just beating club mate Pete Scrowther, 40.09, to the line.  With McKeown and Scrowther backed up by Pete Sibbett, 40.40, James Walsh 44.03 and Nick Malpeli 44.24 the men’s vet team finished 2^nd and are still leading the overall competition by 2pts.  The men’s team finished 3^rd on the night 1 place ahead of local rivals Fairlands Valley Spartans and overall the club are sitting comfortably in 3^rd position, 10 points ahead of 4^th placed FVS. 

 

Despite having to endure the A1 and M25 during rush hour 51 runners turned out for the club and enjoyed a fantastic event.  The rest of the results were: James Atkins 40.42, Nick Beresford 41.01, Gary Cook 42.06, Oliver Saville 43.09, Stewart Bryant 44.47, John Franklin 44.50, Pete Northover 45.50, Richard Thackeray 45.53, Adrian Sherwood 45.58, Paul Kelly 45.59, Norman Leslie 47.01, Martyn Annetts 47.06, Steve Tracey 48.12, John Hunt 48.27, Johnny Spinks 49.17, Colin Calcutt 51.09, Duncan Hooker 51.29, Deryk Myall 51.53, Chris Gilham 52.04, Sharon Gregson 52.40, Dave Ross 53.17, Paul Bowal 54.18, Theresa Northey 54.50, Karen Dodsworth 56.02, Brian Bailey 56.10, Jo Harbon 57.12, Anne Callis 57.56, Linda Aird 57.58, Helen Cairns 57.59, Finlay Simpson 58.39, Stephanie Killingbeck 61.42, Graham Thompson 63.34, Brian Judkins 67.13,  Chris Sharp 68.40, Sally Harkins 69.59, Joy Stroud 70.30, Pat Norris 70.02, Karen Musker72.00 and Lindsay Cook 73.24.

 

Helen wins at Marston.

 

Just 2 days after the Midweek League Karen Dodsworth, Jo Harbon and Joy Stroud were in action again at the Marston Forest 5km.  With Karen running 23.50, Jo 24.47 and Joy 30.36  all the members were pleased with their performances but it was Helen Harbon who stole the show in winning the U17 category with a fabulous 26.56.  Helen, whose previous PB set last year at the same race was 37.46, is a member of Letchworth Hockey and Tennis clubs and is obviously a fabulous talent for the future.