After a thrilling finale at the last race in the East Midlands Grand Prix road racing series at Milton Keynes, Kettering Town Harriers walked away with several honours, some that have never been won by the club before. Competing against much bigger clubs in the East Midlands, all the hard winter training put in by the team and their coaches were well rewarded. In total, 21 members of the road running section of the club were able to take part in some, or all of the 8 races involved in this series ranging from 5 miles to 10 kilometres, in the space of just 9 weeks, with 17 competing in 5 races or more.
Individual honours went to Lauren Mehmet who won 5 of the 6 Junior Ladies races she entered, walking away as overall series winner. Ron Seale was V60 category winner in all 3 of the races he took part in, but unfortunately did not compete in enough races to walk away as the series winner. David Green (senior man) finished in podium positions in 3 of the 6 races he took part in, and claimed 3rd place in the overall series. Phil West (V40 man) finished in podium position in 4 of the 7 races he took part in, claiming 2nd place in the overall series. Other individual prizes were awarded to Matt Fowler (senior man), who finished in 8th place overall in the series.
Team prizes went to the Kettering senior men, who had wrapped up first place in the series with a race to go. The team was came first in 3 of the races, and finished in podium positions in 5 of the 8 races. This is a great achievement considering that there were 40 teams competing in the competing. Not to be outdone, the veteran men’s team who were in joint first place with one race to go pulled of a final race victory at Milton Keynes, to also win the veteran men’s overall series title, making it a joint victory for both men’s teams. The veteran men’s team won 4 of the 8 races, competing against 31 other teams, finishing in podium positions in 6 of the 8 races.
The senior ladies team finished the series in 8th place out of 36 teams competing, while the veteran ladies finished in 10th place out of the 27 teams competing.
Special thanks to Kirste, Natasha, Lucy and Georgina who came along to the races to support and cheer the runner’s home.
Individual series standings after 8 races are as follows;
Laura Mehmet 1st Junior lady.
David Green 3rd Senior man.
Matt Fowler 8th Senior man.
Robert Brownlee 40th Senior man.
Antony Poncia 42nd Senior man.
Graham Pratt 44th Senior man.
Phil West 2nd V40 man.
Steve Green 6th V40 man.
Andrew Clawson 11th V40 man.
Kemel Mehmet 12th V40 man.
Richard Campbell 17th V40 man.
Michael Salter 18th V40 man.
Paul Marlow 20th V45 man.
Yvonne Mehmet 8th V40 lady.
Barbra Fulton 8th V45 lady.
Kerry Munn 4th V50 lady.
Unfortunately, Alan Rain, Neil Tandy, Amanda Marlow and Peter Goringe did not compete in 4 or more of the races so did not get a final series placement.