Arena 80 really were flying at the weekend.
With so many races at the weekend for many of our athletes, I’m pleased to say it was a pretty good weekend for them and Arena 80 ac.
The first shout must go to Alex Jago who is really coming of age as he had a tremendous 5k race at the Ipswich Twilight event to record a time of 16.12 and put himself in 2nd spot on the Arena all time club records. To make it a little more remarkable, Alex had also raced in the 800m just a few hours before hand, now that’s pretty spectacular. Surely a sub 16 is now on the cards from one of our men. Congratulations Alex!
The Arena men’s 5k club records now stand:
1 Richard Clayton Goodwood 2018 16m 04s
2 Alex Jago Ipswich Twilight 2019 16m 12s
3 Richard Burgess-Gamble SM Kings Head Canter 2013 16m 14s
4 Timmy Gedin SM Hove Park 2019 16m 19s
5 Joe Ashley SM Hove Park 2016 16m 25s
At the Sussex Half Marathon Champs held at Gatwick, it was a great day for our guys as they flew around the course and medals were duly winning their way to our athletes. It was plane to see that our guys were not there just to make up the numbers, they were there ready to take off from the start (see what I did there).
There were some true outstanding runs so first up we must big up a true stalwart of the club, that being Julie Briggs who always gives it some and a little more as she was first Sussex female, 1st Sussex F50, 1st team (with Dani Tarleton and Fiona Bugler) and 23rd overall with a brilliant time of 1.23.43. Not a bad day to go out running.
Another outstanding run also from Dani Tarleton who was just a sneeze away from Julie Briggs as she came home as 3rd female overall, 2nd Sussex female, 1st Sussex F40 and part of the winning team and 27th overall, as she cruised home in a time of 1.24.14.
Completing the winning team trio was Fiona Bugler who took an excellent 3rd Sussex F50 place with a time of 1.40.42.
Two other results to note came from John Orden, who seems to be making a habit of picking up medals at the moment as he took 2nd M60 with a time of 1.33.19 and Anne Miners, who seems to have come out of nowhere in the last few months, as she took 1st Sussex F60 with a time of 1.56.16.
Huge congratulations to all of our athletes on a job well done and for making us all very proud here at Arena 80.