Middlesbrough Riverside 5K - 13th May 2012On a blustery day on Teesside it was two Tynesiders that stole the show as Ian Hudspith and Stacey Rogers went home victorious.
Just minutes before the start of the race runners were informed “apologies folks but there’s no glamorous start today – it’s just a rope because it was too windy to get the start gantry up” so it wasn’t going to be easy running for this years race but that didn’t stop over 1000 runners tackling the newly adapted course. As with previous years the course started and finshed near the Riverside Stadium however this year saw the runners come into the stadium itself to complete their final 200m around the edge of the pitch in front of a strong crowd of spectators. Morpeth's Ian Hudspith, who also won the race in 2010 so no a stranger to the previous Middlesbrough 5k course, lead the race from the off and wasn't challenged to come home almost a minute ahead of his nearest rival, clubmate Nick Swinburn with fellow Morpeth Harrier David Swinburne finishing in 6th – certainly worth the trip for the Morpeth lads who were to take 3 of the 6 individual honours on the day. On the womens front it was quite a different story with some closely contended races for 1st , 3rd and 5th positions between the ‘home turf’ girls and the visitors. Stacey Rogers making the trip down south from Wallsend Harriers took the lead from the off but was quickly passed by local girl Carolyn Summersgill of Middlesbrough & Cleveland Harriers and the placings continued to be tightly contested until 4k where Rogers edged away and made sure of the win with a strong finish to claim first place in 17:56 a 16 second PB and 3 secs ahead of Summersgill 17:59. Meanwhile around 150m back another placing battle was being fought out between local Kerry Matthew of Middlesbrough AC and visitor to the area for the day Angela Hunter of Jarrow & Hebburn. This time the placings went the local way with Matthew placing 3rd in 18:26, 7 seconds clear of Hunter. But there was still more to come and in the last of the battles for the ladies individual honours this time it was down to triathletes Abbie Smith of M&C and Lisa Tweddle of J&H to see who’d claim 5th and 6th. Another tight finish went to the local crowd and despite Tweddle’s substantial PB of 19:51 it was to go to Smith who finished 2 seconds clear in 19:49. An extremely well organized event and nice change to the course to finish pitch side with a great atmosphere for the runners. Hudspith and Rogers now travel to Manchester next weekend for the Great Manchester 10K. Full results can be found by clicking here. |
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