Sixteen year-old Floyd Ratcliffe (Hayle Runners) the youngest runner in the field, showed his older rivals a clean pair of heels at the Par track last week in the Cornwall 3000 metre Championship race, winning the title by a comfortable 14 second margin, in 9 minutes 20.5.

The ladies' title was won by an in form Emma Stepto (Cornwall AC), clocking 9.47.8, her fastest time over this distance since 2014.

The three 3000 metre race programme was the final event of this summer’s successful Duchy Athletic Network (DAN) Race Series, which, earlier in the summer, also included the Cornwall 5000 metres and 10000 metres Championship races.

In the men’s race Cornwall AC’s Paul Smith was the early leader but a recent injury took its toll, as he faded after half way, finishing fourth, as Ratcliffe powered to victory.

Tony Wright (Newquay Road Runners) moved through into second place and also won the Veterans medal, with Justin Thomas (Cornwall AC), getting the better of Smith in the closing stages to clinch the remaining podium position.

Stepto’s time of 9.47.8 moved her to within two and a half seconds of the 2017 UK’s leading mark for V45 Ladies, set by the Worthing based athlete Caroline Hoyte in July. Another Cornwall AC athlete, the highly promising Heidi Tregenza, improved her personal best in second place, crossing the line in 10.10.01, with Amy Sole (10.52.6) completing a clean sweep of the individual medals for Cornwall AC.

One of the objectives of the DAN races is to give runners from the road running clubs an opportunity to compete on the track and the 3000 metre distance certainly attracted many athletes, especially from St Austell Running Club and Newquay Road Runners, to step on to the track for the first time.

In the second race of the evening James Manning (Hayle Runners) took an early lead but was soon passed by the eventual winner, Rich Shirley (St Austell Running Club), who finished ten seconds clear of the Newquay Road Runner, Steve Rendle, with Manning in third place.

The third and final race proved to be the most exciting race of the evening, with Liz Tregenza (Cornwall AC) leading into the home straight but unable to hold off the faster finishes of the winner Tracy McKenzie (Newquay Road Runners), second placed Becci Miles (Newquay Road Runners) and the third finisher Melissa Rowe (St Austell Running Club).

Perhaps the performance of the evening came from the fourteenth runner across the line in race three, Tony Berry (Truro Running Club), who competes in the 80-84 age group. Berry finished in a personal best time of 15.09.8, which consolidates his third position in the UK ALL TIME list for 3000 metres in his age category.

KEY FOR CLUBS

B&W Bristol & West AC, CAC Cornwall AC, HR Hayle Runners, MCTR Mud Crew Trail Runners, NP Newquay & Par AC, NRR Newquay Road Runners, R&N Rugby & Northants AC, STA St Austell Running Club, TRC Truro Running Club.

RESULTS

Race 1 (Cornwall Championships): 1 Floyd Ratcliffe (Under 20) HR 9.20.5, 2 TonyWright NRR 9.34.9, 3 Justin Thomas CAC 9.41.6, 4 Paul Smith CAC 9.45.7, 5 Emma Stepto (1st Lady) CAC 9.47.8, 6 James Cutlan STA 9.59.8, 7 Heidi Tregenza (2nd Lady) CAC 10.01.1, 8 Gary Standinger B&W 10.03.2, 9 Neill Cookson HR 10.05.1, 10 Paul Sole CAC 10.09.8, 11 John Sole CAC 10.40.1, 12 Amy Sole (3rd Lady) CAC 10.52.6, 13 Ruby Orchard (4th Lady) CAC 11.48.7.

Race 2: 1 Rich Shirley STA 10.52.1, 2 Steve Rendle NRR 11.02.6, 3 James Manning HR 11.14.4, 4 Iain Walker STA 11.24.8, 5 Lauren Webster (1st Lady) NP 11.37.1, 6 Andy Chase STA 11.43.7, 7 Nigel Trevena CAC 12.00.2, 8 Peter Allen NRR 12.15.2, 9 Steve Dale NRR 12.30.8, 10 Ian Wright R&N 12.36.0, 11 Phillip Ciano NRR 12.56.7, 12 Shaun Scrace STA 13.20.4, 13 Anna Pascoe MCTR 13.32.1, 14 John Lillis NRR 13.41.9.

Race 3: 1 Tracy McKenzie NRR 13.54.0, 2 Becci Miles NRR 13.54.8, 3 Melissa Rowe STA 13.56.2, 4 Liz Tregenza CAC 13.58.0, 5 Sarah Hill NRR 13.59.0, 6 Adam Bonney STA 14.02.7, 7 Nick Savin NRR 14.12.5, 8 Allan Loveday NRR 14.17.2, 9 Gemma Pateman STA 14.28.5, 10 Holly Payne STA 14.36.5, 11 Kelly Woodfine-Beard NRR 14.44.9, 12 Gennara Iaconianni STA 14.48.9, 13 Ray Frith NRR 15.05.0, 14 Tony Berry TRC 15.09.8, 15 Lesley MacLaren STA 15.31.6, 16 Michelle Dudley STA 16.41.1, 17 Katherine Webster NRR 17.20.4, 18 Liz Wyatt STA 18.28.8, 19 Angela Yates STA 18.46.2, 20 Jenny Bowden NRR 19.39.1.