British team dominate European 50km in Spain

In our international round-up, individual medallists Alison Lavender and Andrew Davies lead Britain to success in Spain while CJ Albertson sets 50km world mark in the United States

IAU 50km European Championships, Avila, Spain, October 9

Great Britain and Northern Ireland won double team gold and claimed two individual medals through Alison Lavender and Andrew Davies.

In the women’s race, Lavender claimed the silver medal behind Ireland’s world 100km bronze medallist Caitriona Jennings (3:19:42) in 3:21:26 to push Poland’s Dominika Stelmach into third.

Jennings’ marathon PB is 2:36 and was achieved at Rotterdam 10 years ago and this year she won the Limerick Marathon in 2:41:09 and here she went through the marathon point in around 2:49 and actually accelerated over the final 5km.

Sally O’Gorman (3:22:23) and Rebecca Bunting (3:26:04) finished fourth and fifth to give Britain a cumulative time for the top three counters of 10:09:52 as Spain took second.

Chloe Richardson (19th in 3:49:56) and Elizabeth Renondeau (24th in 3:55:30) also placed highly.

The men’s contest was closer as Britain won by 90 seconds as Spain had the clear winner Houssame Eddine Benabbou Aziz (2:49:20) while team-mate Alberto Puyuelo Pardo (2:52:39) finished runner-up. The winner, a 2:10 marathoner, passed the marathon point in around 2:23 and covered the last five miles at a similar pace.

Davies’ bronze medal was achieved in a time of 2:53:09 and the 42-year-old was chased home by his compatriot, Will Mycroft (fourth in 2:53:23).

In an incredible show of strength, four other Britons made the top 10 positions with Alex Milne (2:54:33), Dan Nash (2:55:00), Nigel Martin (2:55:42) and Aaron Richmond (2:56:29) as they packed in sixth to ninth and Britain had six runners well before Spain’s third scorer.

This race did not feature the fastest 50km of the weekend however as the 35th Annual Ruth Anderson Memorial Run in San Francisco on October 8 saw CJ Albertson clock 2:38:44 to improve South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka’s pending world record of 2:40:13. It works out at 3:10 per kilometre (just over five minute miling) for 31 miles plus!

The American was 13th in Boston this year in 2:10:23.

Overall: 50km:
1 Houssame Eddine Benabbou Azizi ESP 2:49:20
2 Alberto Puyuelo Pardo ESP 2:52:39
3 Andrew Davies GBR 2:53:09
4 William Mycroft GBR 2:53:23
5 Remigijus Kancys M45 LAT 2:54:05
6 Alexander Milne GBR 2:54:33
7 Daniel Nash GBR 2:55:00
8 Nigel Martin…