Arena applauds our athletes on some great results.

A quick round-up of some results that may normally get looked over from our Arena members.

Lucy Anderson

First up a massive well done to Lucy Anderson who took on the Cotswold113 middle distance triathlon. Lucy did a 1.2 mile swim, 56mile bike and a half marathon in 6hrs 40mins. I know Lucy has been keeping this one very much under the radar as she was terrified of what was to come and also for fear of failing in her quest. The result speaks for itself and this is so far away from a failing, what a tremendous result for her and the fact that she was raising money for Pancreatic Cancer UK in memory of her uncle, how very proud he would be. A massive well done Lucy and another Areneez taking themselves out of their comfort zone and trying something different.
It’s not very often we get to mention an Arena member doing well in sprints, probably as we tend to be more of an endurance running club. However this year one of our members, Rob Derkin decided his talents were more about the sprints. He made the move to train with the Monday night sprint group at Withdean to sharpen him up. It was a great move as Rob took to the Surrey and Sussex Masters Track Championships on the 2nd June. Rob took 2nd place (but 1st Sussex athlete) in the M55 200m in a time of 28.07 and the same result on the M55 400m in 1:.04.77. It’s a great result and nice to see an Arena making the grade in the sprints.
At the same event we would also like to say congratulations to Caroline Wood who took 1st place overall as well as 1st Sussex athlete in the F55 5000m in a time of 21.25. A good day out for both of them.
We love reporting these next two results as we come on to two legends of the club. These guys have been with Arena for many many years and nice to hear that they are still making the grade after all these years on.
First up we say congratulation to Mats Gedin who took 3rd M55 at the Stockholm Marathon on the 2nd June. A very pleased Mats came home in 2:59.42 and over the moon to get a sub 3 again.
The next shout goes to Tracey Owen who took to the hills to take on the SDW 100 miler on 8th June. On what was probably one of the windiest days of the year so far, Tracey came home in 22hrs and 59mins! Tracey was the 7th woman overall and 1st in her age category. A phenomenal ultra-running achievement by any standard but add-on the wind as well and this really was a superb effort. So wonderful to see two of the club stalwarts still making headlines for Arena.