On Sunday, Tamworth AC once again hosted the Tamworth 5 Mile, incorporating the final meeting of the Burton and District Summer League, preceded by the usual 1 Mile event for the younger athletes.
A strong field lined up at the start of the main 5-mile race, as the sun intermittently warmed the 195 runners through patchy cloud.
The front two broke away early, with Tamworth AC’s Ben Evans, last year’s winner, and Sylvain Letendart slotting into the chasing group. Evans pulled away in third place as the race progressed and, unable to make back any ground on the leaders, succumbed to an impressive sprint finish from Danny Warren of Badgers to drop into fourth on the finish line with a time of 28:21. Letendart followed in fifth with 28:32.
Max Kent was next to cross the line for Tamworth AC in 32:23, Tom Ainsworth and James Sherriff came home with 32:09 and 32:10 respectively, followed by Nathan Moore in 35:03.
Ben Edwards completed the race in 35:58, and veteran Nigel Fisher put in a strong finish to advance two places in the final straight for a time of 39:20.
For the ladies, Charlotte Bush finished 4th with another excellent time of 33:28. Sophie and Charlotte Perry completed the line-up for Tamworth and crossed the line together on exactly 43 minutes taking 7th and 8th place.
The race was won by Paul Richardson with a new course record time of 26:32. First female was Emma Pick of Peel Road Runners in 31:42.
Tamworth AC was also well represented in the 1 Mile race, with some excellent performances from the club’s younger athletes. Lottie McLaren (5:57), Kirsten McLaren (6:25) and Libbie Price (6:30) made a clean sweep of the top 3 girls places, with Kian Dickson (6:36) and Joseph Gorst (6:42) taking second and third places for the boys.
More strong performances for Tamworth AC girls came from Jessica Salt (6:37), Annie Boonham (6:41), Tegan Vickey (6:46), Ellie Gauntlett (6:50), Chloe Purkis (7:15), Sofia Farmer (7:32), Katie Leverton (8:02), Harriet Livingstone (8:13) and Charlotte Evans (9:17).
The rest of the boys also did really well with Ben Godber (7:20), Artur Letendart (7:40) and William Newman (8:09) all crossing the line for Tamworth.
Tamworth Athletic Club 