Carroll’s joy at marathon effort

ATHLETICS:

STUART CARROLL regained the Royton Road Runners’ club record with an excellent effort in the London Marathon.

A run of 2 hours 54 minutes 41 seconds was almost four minutes quicker than the previous high mark of Dave Kershaw, set at Abingdon in 2009.

And Carroll also performed superbly in the Steve Rothwell four-mile race in Rochdale. He recorded 22 minutes and 38 seconds to take runners-up spot, 12 seconds behind winner Ian Jackson (Salford Harriers).

Six other club members were among the 36,500 runners in the London Marathon, Colin Green (3:10:54) setting a new personal best to finish ahead of Des Thorpe (3:25:32), Dave Phillips (3:44:24), Steven Shaw (4:14:38) and Helen Knight (4:24:36).

Richard Fiddling (3:25:43) led home six club runners at the Lochaber Marathon in the shadow of Ben Nevis, with Bernie Goodwin (3:28:03), Chris Eavers (3:28:15), Bruce Whittam (3:29:21), Dave Smith (3:46:49) and Jeff Cordwell (4:09:13) following.

As well as Carroll, other Royton athletes did well in the Rochdale race. John Higgins (first veteran 55), Dave Phillips (first v65), Rose Rowson (first fv50), Debbie Shaw (second fv45), Debbie Fiddling (second fv40), June Allingan (second fv65), Bernie Goodwin (3rd v40) and Brian Hurst (third v70) all won prizes in their respective age categories.

There were several debutants amongst the club’s other finishers at Rochdale in what was fifth race in the championship season. They were:

Matthew Oldham, Bill Balmer, Colin Green, Owen Flage, David Emanuel, Bryan Lawton, Paul McHugh, Rob Kellett, Des Thorpe, Mark Kelly, James Trollope, Bruce Whittam, Dominic Franklin, Eamonn Nolan, Steve Shaw, Barry Greaves, Dave Smith, Shane Reading, Ronnie Quinn, Dave Freer, John Lambe, Tony Kane, Steve Hayes and Marilyn Guest.