News

Emsley Carr Mile Winner Matt Stonier

Track & Field 

Matthew Stonier ran the Emsley Carr mile held in conjunction with the night of the 10k a series of races designed to improve the standard of ten kilometre track racing in the U.K. it draws a huge crowd who are able to cheer the athletes on from lane 4 of the track ! The athletes run through a marquee on both home straight and back straight which also serve as beer tents for the thousands of spectators that show up and have been doing for several years now !
Once the athletes had lined up and been introduced to the crowd the starting gun fired and the nineteen athletes set off behind the pacemaker at a pace designed to create a sub four minute winning time . In the first lap Matthew ran at the back of the field as he was the slowest guy in the race with only a 3-39 1500 metre time compared to other athletes with world class personal bests around 3 mins 31 seconds
Matthew wasn’t phased and moved up the pecking order in laps two and three before reaching the bell in sixth or seventh place just as Matthew was trying t move up nearer the front an athlete fell in front of him at 300 metres to go but a combination of almost stopping and jumping over the athlete laying on the track he started to chase the leaders catching them with 200 metres to go and then began attempting to move up but the speed was so high he followed rather than attempting to over take on the final bend .
Once the leading four or five athletes hit the home straight Matthew swung wide trying to find a clear run to the finish . Now he was really moving slowly passing those in front of him and as the finish line approached a final lunge saw him win by just two hundredths of a second beating world class milers with times 8 seconds faster in a time of 3 minutes 54.85 seconds ! What followed as he was surrounded by the sporting press for Matthew was a whole new experience!
So the humble Invicta East Kent based at Loughborough university is now a new name on the elite athletes fighting for places at the commonwealth games and European championships !
Matthew has now been added to the field of  athletes contesting 1500 metres in the Muller Birmingham Grand Prix this Saturday, the first meeting to be held in the new Commonwealth Games Stadium !
Matthew Stonier the local boy ex Kings school pupil is certainly one to watch !