Bournemouth AC News - Rotary Quarter Marathon

NEWS HOMEPAGE ENTRY FORMS CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP BAC PHOTO ALBUM

Report and results from the Rotary Quarter at Boscombe Pier

*13/4/09 Bournemouth retain team title - A backdrop of yellow and blue greeted the 26th Rotary Quarter Marathon on Saturday morning and that was in addition to the waves crashing onto Bournemouth beach.

A quartet of Bournemouth AC runners held back as three others made a somewhat enthusiastic start to the race. But once the pace settled Ian Habgood, Jon Sharkey, Mark Hargreaves and Rob McTaggart moved clear of the field along the first two miles of promenade towards Hengistbury Head. In fact the nearest challenge to the team came in the shape of a rather impatient van driver who nearly took out the squad coming off the beach.

By half way it had become a two horse race with Mark and Tag feeling Half Marathon efforts from just six days previous. Jon and Ian remained neck and neck until four miles and in taking advantage of Jon’s marathon mileage, Ian moved clear up the hill against a slight wind.

Moving to a gap of ten seconds was enough for Ian to maintain his lead and fend off a late fight back on the steep downhill to the finish at Boscombe pier. Mark and Tag followed to make a clean sweep of the top four despite the squad missing its three fastest 10k runners from the 2008 rankings.

Duncan Wells beat Robin Copestick by one second as the all important fifth scorer while Chris Francis ran over 30 seconds quicker than the Christmas 10k in December despite the quarter marathon being a third of a mile further.

Rotary Quarter Marathon: BAC Results
1 Ian Habgood 35:38, 2 Jon Sharkey 35:46, 3 Mark Hargreaves 36:11, 4 Rob McTaggart 37:41, 11 Duncan Wells 39:30, 12 Robin Copestick 39:31, 44 Chris Francis 43:29.

Full results are available on the Rotary Club of Bournemouth East Cliff web site.

A few pictures from the race are available on the photo album section of the web site courtesy of Graeme Miller.

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