Historic National Cross Country Championship medal for teenager Tom and a top triathlon performance from PACTRAC Ironman

Peterborough & Nene Valley AC athlete Thomas Preston won a historic bronze medal at the 2024 National Cross Country Championship.

The event held at Weston Park near Telford had been rearranged after it was originally cancelled because of the weather last Winter.

Thomas Preston after his third-place finish at the National Cross Country Championships.

placeholder image — Thomas Preston after his third-place finish at the National Cross Country Championships.

And Preston skipped over the hard ground in the under 17 race to finish third and become the first PANVAC athlete to medal at the National Championship, finishing just eight seconds behind the winner.

PANVAC’s Finlay Smith placed 61st out of 227 in the under 13 race while clubmate Dan Evans finished 92nd out of 529 senior men.

Thomas Preston during his historic run in the National Cross Country Championships.

DANISH DELIGHT

A dozen Yaxley Runners travelled to the Copenhagen Half Marathon. Three of them made the top 1,000 in a race with over 26,000 entrants.

Darren Wells led them home with a 1:18.21 personal best (PB) which was good enough for 657th position. Craig Bradley took 784th place in a time of 1:19.26, while Darren Hillier was 16 seconds and 42 places further back.

Neil Price finished 1066th in 1:21.46 and Daniel Holland placed 1354th with a time of 1:34.46. Carl Baron finished 1794th in 1:25.50, while Jacob Drury (2741th), Sam Pettit (2818th), Jo Bennett (3513th), Will Siddle (3602nd), Darren Ellis (9840th) & Will Sach (11,358th) also ran well.

The Yaxley Runners relay team in Norfolk.

NORFOLK NIGHTMARE

Yaxley were also involved in the Round Norfolk Relay, a popular event which is a logistical nightmare for the competing teams.

Runners need to get to their start point & then be picked up when they finish their leg on a 17-stage course covering a distance of 198 miles.

Although the Yaxley team finished well down the field, placing 57th out of 60 teams, they were pleased to get round in under 30 hours with a finishing time of 28:58.03.

HALF MARATHON HERO

PANVAC veteran Paul Parkin became an East of England champion when finishing as first over 60 in the Pleshey Half Marathon. Parkin clocked a time of 1:39.56 on the undulating course near Chelmsford in Essex.

Helpston Harrier Natasha English finished fourth lady in the Northampton Half Marathon with a time of 1:28.22. Ollie Mason of PANVAC placed 21st overall with a 1:23.05 clocking.

BRILLIANT IN BERLIN

PACTRAC ace Paul Lunn came sixth overall at the Erkner 70.3 Half-Ironman Triathlon in Berlin, winning his age group by a massive 17:30 minutes.

Lunn has won the last two 70.3 World Championship titles and will chase the hat-trick in Taupo, New Zealand in December.

In Berlin he was 97th of 1,162 athletes after the 1.2 mile swim before the fastest bike time of any competitor, when he averaged a speed of 26.67mph over the 56 miles, took him into the lead in his age group. A half marathon time of 1.18 then sealed an impressive win.

Clubmate Louise Hathaway came a brilliant sixth in her age group. Lunn finished in 3:54:33 and Hathaway in 5:08:37.

PACTRAC’s Scott Lloyd ran the ‘In Flanders Fields’ Marathon from Nieuwpoort on the Belgian coast following the river 26.2 miles past WW1 cemeteries to Ypres. He finished in 3:40:09 in his first marathon for eight years.

PACTRAC hold the final race in their club calendar on Sunday – a Standard Distance Triathlon from Oundle School Pool. Non-members can compete, with entries via Pactrac.clubpal.app,