Turnout is tribute to tragic Ian

ATHLETICS: A CLUB record 45 members of Royton Road Runners took part in the Ian Casey Memorial 5K race at Cowm Reservoir.

The race, organised by Andy O’Sullivan, was in memory of Ian, a club member who tragically collapsed and died at the Gloucester Marathon in 2009.

The fact that many runners had participated in the Windermere Marathon and Chester Half Marathon just a few days earlier was a tribute to Ian’s popularity.

As the seventh race in the Royton club championship season, competition was fierce and resulted in some outstanding performances.

Carole Madden was 25th overall of 108 competitors and the first woman to finish in a time of 19 minutes and 49 seconds.

David Emanuel, Teresa Hollins, Val Kilburn Louise Gilchrist, June Allingan and Brian Hurst all came home first in their respective age categories, while Dave Phillips produced a second winning performance in a week in the V65 category, having beaten a much bigger field to win at the Great Manchester Run.

At the front, Stuart Carroll continued his season-long dominance, clocking 18:07 for seventh place overall, his seventh successive club championship win.

A tremendous run by Bill Balmer (18:59) gave him second place ahead of 2009 champion Owen Flage.


Other Royton finishers-

Martin Kay, Bernie Goodwin, Michael Harrison, John Higgins, Bryan Lawton, Mark Kelly, Paul McHugh, James Trollope, Rob Kellett, Des Thorpe, Bruce Whittam, Steve Shaw, Chris Eavers, Barry Greaves, Debbie Shaw, Jamie Holdaway, John Williamson, Shane Reading, Debbie Fiddling, Ronnie Quinn, Jeff Cordwell, Dean Burgess, John Lambe, Dave Smith, Shiela Waite, George Meynell, Helen Knight, Jenny Newell, Tony Hunking, Julie Greenwood, David Webb, Liz Phillips, Kay Fitton, Marilyn Guest.