European glory for Sam at Duathlon meet in Spain

Windy conditions in Soria and the hills pushed the competitors to their limits in the sprint events.

In the F30-34 age group Sam Fawcett, who is only recently recovering from a broken collarbone, sped home as first finisher and the title of European Duathlon champion in a 1:14:52 with splits of 19:44 for her first run, 42:43 for the cycle and 10:11 for her final run.

Sam was joined by twin sister Becky in her first GB outing after battling injuries for the best part of the year. Becky finished in 13th in 1:22:59 with splits of 22:31, 45:47 and 11:33.

In the M40-44 age group D&T’s Johnathan Hoggett raced home to a silver medal in 1:03:59 just 0.4 of a second behind the winner with splits of 17:39, 34:57 and 9:07.

In the F45-49, Vikki Johnston, fresh from a Tri training camp the week before, put in a superb performance to finish eighth with a 21:44 first 5k, 46:22 cycle and 11:19 final run.

Matt Hamilton, also in his very first GB outing, finished 25th in the 25-29 category, in 1:09:07, one of the toughest categories with splits of 17:40, 39:10 and 9:15.

Allison Kaye finished in 15th in the F50-54 group, racing hard to finish with a 24:09 5k, 48:55 cycle and 12:48 final cycle.

Meanwhile, a large team of Dacorum & Tring Roadrunners were in Milton Keynes over the long weekend and put in some great performances.

On Monday there were three run options and the club had good representation in all of them.

In the main event, The MK Marathon, more than 2,000 runners took part, including six D&T members, three of which were making their marathon debuts.

Simon Walker, in his first marathon, was the first club finisher in a superb 3:27:45 easily bettering his 3:30 goal.

Liam Ahern had the same target and paced himself precisely to finish in 3:29:58, a few weeks after a strong display at the Manchester Marathon.

Daniel Griggs was another who was running his first marathon and finished in a highly respectable 3:42:19 despite struggling with a leg niggle.

Charlotte Bunce broke her marathon duck and performed admirably (4:04:09).

Luke Waller did the Brighton Marathon three weeks ago and injured his knee but that didn’t prevent him from putting in a solid run to get himself a PB (4:26:38).

Erica Klein had recently completed the Paris Marathon which perhaps led to a slightly slower time, but still finished in a very credible 4:32:01.

The marathon relay was also popular in Milton Keynes with 123 teams taking part.

D&T had two teams competing, an all-female side comprising Kirsty Russell, Jessica Morrison, Louise Flower and Kelly DuBuisson and a men’s team of Chris Keen, Richard Stevens, David Stears and Casper DuBuisson.

There were hopes of seeing a final-leg contest between husband-and-wife Casper and Kelly but by that time the ladies had already built a small lead, meaning Kelly departed the changeover point first. She hammered home the advantage to lead the women home to finish in 20th with a total time of 3:33:31. The men clocked 3:48:35 for 31st place.

New D&T member Mark Worley joined three of his friends to make up a team and they finished in 4:05:39.

An impressive 18 roadrunners lined up with over 3,000 others to take on the MK Half-Marathon.

Chris Marriott put in a flying run just a week after his London exploits to finish in 1:26:43.

He was followed in by twomore of the club’s London heroes in Jamie Marlow and Ania Gabb. Jamie fulfilled his job of official 1:30 pacer to near perfection to clock 1:30:04 with Ania running with him to finish in 1:30:11 as the fifth female overall.

Chris Kitchener was next in 125th (1:35:43), followed by Ben Stratford (PB 1:36:05), Rasmi Nanda (PB 1:44:22), Bernie Horabin (1:44.31, ninth FV45), Mike Irvine (1:45:11) and Rob Davies ( 1:47:18), Russell Morris ( 1:51:16), Clare Hunt (1:59:07), Michelle Ashwell (2:01:01), Janice Briggs (PB 2:03:48), Gary Sturdy (2:06:02), Andy Guilder (2:13:50), Emma Edmunds-Fahey (2:16:34), Annette Howard (2:26:38) and Kayleigh Halvey (2:28:36).

n More D&T news in the sports round-up on p41.