Perth played host to the Sri Chinmoy 100km /50k race on Sunday 3 April and featured both the British and Scottish 100km Championship together with the annual Anglo Celtic Plate International.
In near perfect conditions, England’s Matt Dickinson (Clapham Chasers) and Scotland’s Jo Murphy (unattached) claimed the British 100km championship titles with superb Course Record performances.
The 100k race featured one of the most competitive fields ever witnessed in Britain and as it transpired, no fewer than seven men broke the magical seven hour barrier and three women the magical eight hour barrier with a string of personal bests throughout the field.
Running his first 100km road race, Dickinson was content to sit in the pack. At 50k, reached in around 3 hours 18, two minutes covered the top 12 men.
As always as a 100km race approaches the 40 mile mark, things tend to get interesting. As some slowed or faltered, the Clapham Chaser maintained a steady pace to ease to the lead and achieve almost even 50k splits to win in 6:39:34.
Matt’s run thus broke Charlie Harpur’s 2019 course record by almost four minutes.
Behind him England’s Ollie Garrod( South London Harriers ) and the two Scots from Metro Aberdeen – Jason Kelly and Chris Richardson – looked strong along with Northern Irelands Gareth King .
Kelly was to come home the stronger in second in 6.42:23 with Garrod taking third in 6:46:50 and King fourth in 6:47:33 .
King’s time was a new All Ireland and also a Northern Ireland 100km record.
Check out Stuart Ross gallery for more race photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/190293921@N03/albums/72177720297857966/with/51982762369/
