Weekend round-up 22nd/23rd June 2013

Last weekend was a busy one for local runners as it saw the weekly Southend Parkrun, the HARP charity 24 Hour Relay Challenge, The South of England Athletics Championships as well as the European Team Championships take place.

First up was the Southend Parkrun at Gunners Park, Shoebury on Saturday morning which saw 134 runners take part, with 41 of those achieving personal bests including Alexa Joel who broke her own female course record of 17:23 to finish first woman (and first overall) in 17:12. A special mention should go to Nathan Thornton who took on the role of Run Director, a great achievement at just 11 years old!

The top three male finishers on the day were:

1st:  17:20 Ian Anthony (Havering Mayesbrook AC)
2nd: 17:23 Lee Taylor (Southend AC) 
3rd:  17:32 Neil Spicer (Leigh on Sea Striders)

The top three female finishers on the day were:

1st:  17:12  Alexa Joel (Havering Mayesbrook AC)
2nd: 20:02 Tracy Swindell (Benfleet AC)
3rd:  23:04 Veronique Dorothy (Unattached)

Well done to everyone that took part on Saturday, latest parkrun results can be viewed here

Image Courtesy of Southend Parkrun

Saturday also saw the start of Southend Homeless Charity HARP's 24 Hour Relay Challenge at Westcliff Rugby Club. Starting at 12noon on Saturday, the relay involved team completing multiple laps of a 4.2mile circuit through the Cherry Orchard Park over a 24 hour period where runners where able to camp over as they worked as teams to complete the challenge.

For more information about HARP or if you feel you can donate please visit their website www.harpsouthend.co.uk .

The weekend also saw the South of England Athletics Under 20 and Senior Championships take place at Watford with some fantastic performances from local athletes.

In the Senior Men 1500m Southend AC Athletes Adam Hickey and David Gibbon ran well to secure 1st and 4th place respectively, with Hickey winning in 3:51.16 and Gibbon running a season's best of 3:55.80. The Senior Men's 400m saw Southend AC record holder Jake King take silver in a very close final in a time of 48.34s, just .38 of a second outside his PB.

On the Women's side of the competition, Basildon AC's Kaylee Dodd won silver for her efforts in the U20 Women's 800m in a time of 2:11.43 while fellow Basildon athlete Gemma Kersey finished 5th in the Senior Women's 800m in 2:09.20.

Full results from the South of England Championships can be found here

By far one of the most impressive performances of the weekend came from Canvey's running sensation Jessica Judd (Chelmsford AC) and her superb performance in the Senior Women's 800m race at the European Team Championships at Gateshead on Saturday.

In only her first outing in a Senior Great Britain vest, the 18 year old dominated a class-act field, exercising full control as she took the lead in the early stages, holding onto it and fighting off an attack during the home straight to take the victory in 2:00.82. This earnt full points for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team, helping them to finish third overall.

Sunday saw the second day of events at the European Team Championships including another local star, Olympian Andrew Osagie of Harlow AC, compete in the Mens 800m. After a 53s first lap, Osagie lay 5th but picked up the pace in the last 200m to finish an extremely close 3rd in 1:47.41.

Full results from the European Athletics Team Championships can be viewed here

Congratulations to everyone who got out and ran last weekend, wherever you were!

The RunSouthend team