Peter Le Grice (Mounts Bay Harriers) and Emma Stepto (Cornwall AC) took full advantage of the runner friendly conditions in last Thursday evening’s Cornwall 10000 metre track championships at the Carn Brea Leisure Centre, the final race of the successful 2016 Duchy Athletic Network (DAN) Summer Track Series.

Stepto, displaying her usual tactical awareness, judged her pace to perfection, retaining her county title, benefiting from running alongside some of the men for most of the way and crossing the line in her third fastest 10000 metre time of 35.26.8.

This time propels her to the top of the UK Ladies Veteran 45-49 10000m rankings, with the second ranked female 6 minutes 17.5 seconds behind.

Interestingly there is only one other UK athlete in the younger Veterans 40-44 age group faster than the Cornwall AC Ladies team captain, the Olympic 10000m runner Jo Pavey, who runs for Exeter Harriers. Cornwall AC’s Amy Sole, who has been battling injury for much of the summer, is hopefully now on her way back to form, coming home in second place in the Ladies championship.

One of the county’s top distance runner, Le Grice, had Godolphin School’s Colin Snook (Cornwall AC) and Ben Price (Cheltenham and County Harriers), for company over the opening laps of the Men’s race but by the one mile mark the Mounts Bay Harrier was out on his own, appearing to tick off the twenty five laps with ease, clocking 31 minutes 40.2 to clinch the county title almost a minute clear of Snook.

Price, who has strong Cornish connections having lived in Truro for many years and represented the county at cricket, stayed with Snook until halfway but could not match the pace of the Cornwall AC man and settled for third place.

In the chasing group Justin Thomas (Cornwall AC) moved ahead of team mate Helston’s Paul Whear and Jordan Morant (Hayle Runners) three miles into the race, chasing Price for all his worth but had to settle for fourth place, eight seconds behind the Cheltenham schoolteacher, in a new track personal best of 33.18.9. Morant (33.42.5) got the better of his arch rival Whear (33.57.8) and both runners were delighted with huge personal best 10000m times, also improving on their personal best 10K times on the road.

The Men’s Under 20 county title was won by Falmouth’s Tom Slattery (Cornwall AC) whose gutsy performance earned him an impressive seventh place overall, despite losing contact with the group he was in, when he was forced to stop to do up his shoe lace.

Chairman of the Duchy Athletic Network, Andy Moore, commented after the races, “This summer’s three race track series has been really successful attracting so many road runners who have experienced track running for the first time.

The series has also continued to boost the County Championship events over 3000m, 5000m and 10000m, with eighty runners taking part in the championship races and another eighty one running in the support races over the same distances. I am sure the series will continue to grow, going from strength to strength.”

KEY FOR CLUBS

BRR Bodmin Road Runners, B&W Bristol & West AC, CAC Cornwall AC, C&CH Cheltenham & CountyHarriers, CR Carn Runners, ECH East Cornwall Harriers, HR Hayle Runners, MBH Mounts Bay Harriers, NRR Newquay Road Runners, STA St Austell Running Club, TRC Truro Running Club, TS Team Spi, U Unattached.

RESULTS

Race 1 Cornwall 10000 metre Championships: 1 Peter Le Grice MBH 31.40.2, 2 Colin Snook CAC 32.34.4, 3 Ben Price C&CH 33.10.4, 4 Justin Thomas CAC 33.18.9, 5 Jordan Morant HR 33.42.5, 6 Paul Whear CAC 37.57.8, 7 Tom Slattery (Under 20) CAC 34.59.8, 8 Alex Daniels NRR 35.11.9, 9 Emma Stepto (1st Lady) CAC 35.26.8, 10 Jo Argall CAC 35.44.0, 11 Gary Standinger B&W 35.58.6, 12 Scott Abraham HR 36.17.2, 13 Mark Webster CAC 36.18.5, 14 Steve Wherry CAC 36.51.7, 15 Paul Sole CAC 36.53.7, 16 Keiran Murrant HR 37.12.1, 17 Paul Sawford CR 37.17.0, 18 Robert Watts HR 37.17.7, 19 Dan Williams CAC 37.54.8, 20 Mike Dowrick CAC 38.07.1, 21 Andrew Eddison CAC 39.11.9, 22 Amy Sole (2nd Lady) CAC 40.48.9, 23 John Sole BRR 40.50.1, 24 Phil Bolt CAC 41.06.1, 25 Jason Webb CAC 41.30.7, 26 Colin Bathe TRC 43.05.4, 27 Donal Breen TRC 44.17.1.

Race 2: 1 James Manning HR 39.19.3, 2 Jonathon Webb U 40.59.5, 3 Gordon Adie TRC 42.07.2, 4 Jonny Hewitt TS 42.10.1, 5 Nick Masters HR 42.16.7, 6 Nigel Trevena CAC 43.06.0, 7 Peter Allen NRR 43.20.4, 8 Chris Ulman ECH 43.28.8, 9 Iain Walker STA 43.40.3, 10 Laura Rogers (1st Lady) CAC 43.52.7, 11 Craig Tonkin HR 45.57.3, 12 Robert Beard BRR 47.15.5, 13 Jon Mitchell U 47.16.6, 14 Lee Channon CAC 48.13.6, 15 Brett Stepto CAC 49.16.7, 16 Steve Jenkin CAC 49.22.1, 17 Anna Pascoe (2nd Lady) CR 51.44.5, 18 Nicola Tozer (3rd Lady) CAC 53.41.8.