Gloucester Athletic Club members have been in impressive form in recent weeks, picking up titles and personal bests on a variety of different surfaces across the country.

On the roads, Steve Kenyon continued his preparations for this year’s London Marathon with a new personal best at the Bourton 10K race, taking 40 seconds off his previous best with a 33:43 clocking in 7th place.

Training partner Max Sheppard was next home, placing 21st in a personal best 35:59, with Jeremy Mower coming home in 26th place in 36:47.

Tracy Hinxman placed 32nd in a new club W45 age group best 37:22, with another runner in training for London, Jason Tilley, placing 48th in 38:21.

Seb Clarke normally specialises in the 800m on the track but has building up his endurance strength this year through cross-country racing and at Bourton he set a new 10K personal best of 39:31 when coming home in 70th place.

Graham Davis was tantalisingly close to his personal best, missing out by just one second when clocking 39:48 in 76th place. Amy Walker placed 145th in 43:08, Chris Davis 247th in 47:35 and M70 Dave Spackman 373rd in 53:49.

Mike Mansfield placed 7th at the challenging Minchinhampton 10K event, clocking 40:22, while Charlotte McGlone produced a strong run to place 14th overall and first lady in 43:10. Peter Jeffery clocked 47:27 in 32nd place, daughter Lucy placed 42nd in 48:43, Chris Davis placed 58th in 50:43 and Emma Jeffery placed 118th in 56:53.

Tina Wickens produced the stand-out performance by a City athlete at the British Masters Indoors championships at Lee Valley in north London when she won the F50 800 metres in a new personal best and Club indoor best time 2:26.81.

Her coach Arthur Daley took the silver medal in the M70 1500 metres in a new Club age group best 5:52.05 and 5th place in the 800 metres in another club age best 3:02.22 while Richard Blackwell placed 2nd in his M60 60 metres heat in 8.74 seconds.

At the recent Southern Counties Masters Indoors Championships, also at Lee Valley, Ben Reeves, in his first ever indoors race, placed 2nd in his M40 60 metres heat in 8.03 seconds, just three one-hundredths of a second outside the Club indoors best.

In cross-country, several club members represented the Gloucestershire team at the Inter-Counties Championships over a very muddy course at Loughborough. Ruth Brook (U13G) improved her position in the county team to finish second scorer in 185th with 16:40 for 3k.

Oliver Mitchell (U13B), called into the team only a few days before completed the muddy 3k course in 15:48 for 224th. Millie Newell (U15G) finished 191st over 4k in 20:16. Millie Porter U17W gained the highest Gloucester AC placing in 72nd in 23:56 chased home by Tilly Ashley in 74th in 23:58 over the 5k course. 

Amber Spackman lost time at the start to replace a shoe that had come off in the mud but battled through to place 258th in 29:34. Under 17M Toby Scott ran 6k in 23:51 for 125th. Gloucester AC's oldest male runner in the championships, Seb Clarke, finished 136th with 38:29 for 8k whilst Briony Bishop, the oldest female, finished 6k in 225th in 58:14.

The Gloucester club won several individual age group medals in the 2019-20 Gloucestershire Cross-Country League which finished last week.

Kim Millward won the LV35 title, Nicola Waters won the LV60 title and Arthur Daley was first overall in the M70 age group.

Silver medals were won by Millie Porter in the U17W, Briony Bishop in the U20W, Dave Spackman in the M70 and Chris O’Carroll in the M75 categories. Tilly Ashley won the bronze medal in the U17W age group in which the Club won the team gold.

Steve Kenyon placed third in the Grizzly 20, a tough multi-terrain event over 20 miles around south Devon. The recent weather had made the conditions extremely difficult, in Kenyon’s words, “Brutal, especially the bogs and rivers”, but excellent preparation for London.

Next Sunday sees the Gloucester club host its only road race, the Gloucester 20, around the lanes of Hardwicke and the Waterwells estate. Approximately 500 runners are expected for the race, which starts at 9:30am and residents are forewarned of minor traffic disruption in the area.