Gold for Church, Ruth does more than keep up with the Joneses, Masters success for PANVAC stars

Lydia Church won gold in her first big event of the season, the British Universities Indoor Championship at Sheffield.

Competing in the Ambulant Ladies shot put the PANVAC thrower delivered her winning throw of 10.94 with her first effort of the day.

Two other PANVAC athletes acquitted themselves well with Angus Bowling achieving a best clearance of 4.33m for eighth position in the pole vault.

Craig Al-Rousi placed 10th in his 3,000m heat with a 9:27.94 personal best (PB).

RUTH IN RHYL

Ruth Jones more than kept up with her namesakes when winning the Rhyl 10 mile road race on Sunday in a time of 1:05.27.

One in 10 of the 272 finishers in the North Wales race shared the Helpston Harrier’s surname. As well as finishing as first lady she placed 19th overall, and only one of the 18 men ahead of her was a Jones.

The Burghley Park shepherd ran an impressively consistent race with her splits for the first five miles and the last five miles almost identical.

The third Jones over the line was her husband Brian who placed 42nd in 1:12.53.

CAPES IN COLORADO

PANVAC’s Donovan Capes had had a busy start to the year on the USA indoor college circuit.

He had already competed five times for Adams State University this year, with a best 7.26kg shot put distance of 14.08m achieved, when finishing third in the West Colorado Open last weekend.

MIGHTY MASTERS

Four of PANVAC’s finest veterans helped the Eastern Masters to a famous win in the English Masters Inter-Areas Challenge held at Lee Valley.

Max Hall was one of the biggest point scorers for the regional team and won the over 35 long jump, hitting the sand with a distance of 5.96m.

Hall also finished second in the high jump and third in the 60m hurdles. He also featured in the winning 4 x 200m hurdles team

Julian Smith had a busy day competing in four events, and scoring valuable points by placing fourth out of the nine teams in the 60m, 200m and 400m.

Smith's 200m time of 26.37 was a season's best, and he followed it up by running a leg for the Eastern Masters team which finished third in the over 50 4 x 200m relay.

Maggie Skinner clocked 5:18.52 for fourth place in the over 35 1500m, and also took part in the 2000m walk finishing second. Alison Dunphy placed fourth in the over 50 long jump.