Jo and Lisa are crowned British Masters Champions!

This year, the blue riband event on the British Masters Athletic Federation calendar, the 10K championships, took place in Pollok Park, Glasgow on Sunday August 18 and three members of Dumfries Running Club travelled up to take part in the prestigious event...

The course was a testing 2 and a bit laps around Pollok Park, with the route being complicated by both cars and speed bumps.

On the day, very few of the 240 runners who had pre-entered the event were put off by the winds and rainy showers, so with such a large field, the start was always going to be a little chaotic and congested. However everyone seemed to have settled into their race pace by the first mile where marshal Doug Brown directed runners safely onto the pavement to avoid the fast moving traffic of Dumbreck Road.

Jo Zakrzewski gained in both confidence and position as the race progressed, using the hills on each lap to pass her competitors, finishing in 36:06 as the new British Masters 10k champion. Lisa Finlay had a fabulous run to continue her fine form and finished 3rd lady in a great new PB of 36:44, as the British V40 champion. Not to be outdone by the ladies, Les Hill continued his upward streak of results and was really pleased to take another 17 seconds off his midweek race time, recording a result of 41:15.