Personal best for Kate (From Andover Advertiser)

Athletes dodge the snow at Stubbington 10k

12:00am Friday 25th January 2013 in Sport

KATE Towlerton was the only Andover AC female athlete competing in the Stubbington 10k.

She ran a big personal best time in 38:01 to finish 65th and fifth lady home.

Despite all the bad weather and snow, it was declared at 1pm on the Saturday that the sixth of 12 races in the Hampshire Road Race League would go ahead less than 24 hours later.

The conditions did put some off as, from the 1,800 sell out of entries, 1,212 finished the race.

Six Andover athletes took to the field of play in the cold and wintery conditions as it was snowing lightly at the start.

Peter Mitchell continued his good form on and off the road with an excellent race to register a personal best time of 36:37 to finish 31st in a very high quality field.

Solomon Lane was in second place for Andover AC up to the 5km marker, but a calf injury forced him to retire .

Mark Curtis, who was using the event as a marathon-paced effort, recorded a solid 38:31 in 80th place.

Earlier in the race Matt Lane had been doing battle with Mark trying to get ahead of him, but to no avail apart from a short stint.

Mark also went past Robert Cliffe in the later stages as his strength and pace showed.

Rob Cliffe held on to be the third counter for the men’s team as Lane closed quickly towards the end.

Rob finished in 38:54 and Lane in 38:56, in 90th and 94th places respectively.