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Canterbury 10 Mile 2022

Road 

Canterbury 10 Race Report 2022

Course Record for local runner, Charlie Brisley, at the Pentland Homes Canterbury 10 Mile Road Race.

The 2022 Pentland Homes Canterbury 10 Mile Road Race was run in near perfect conditions on Sunday 23 rd January. This resulted in a glut of personal bests for the 900 runners, travelling from as far as Scotland that took part. This included the first 4 finishers in both the men’s and ladies’ race. The winner for the second year in succession was ex Invicta East Kent athlete Charlie Brisley, who set a new course record of 49mins 39 sec. This was despite a fall at 8 miles which saw him finish the race with bleeding knees. Charlie, who currently competes for Newham and Essex Beagles, is just 20 years old and is maturing into an exceptional middle distance athlete. He was dominant from the start, running away from the field, where there was a competitive race for the minor places with Invicta East Kent athlete Cole Gibbens finishing second in 51min 48sec. He pulled away in the later stages of the race from Dan Bradley of Tonbridge AC who finished third in 52min 00sec. In fourth place was Anthony Webb from Medway and Maidstone Club in 53min 40sec, who received the vets over 40 prize.

The ladies’ race resulted in a third consecutive victory for Tonbridge runner Helen Gaunt who was close to beating the hour in the very good time of 60min 04sec. She was too strong for Hannah Roberts from Dartford Harriers, who also ran well in finishing in the runners-up spot in 61min 37sec. These two were followed home by Tunbridge Wells Harrier Amelie Karlsson who ran 62min 59sec to finish third in her first 10 mile race. She was chased home by Carole Coulon of Blackheath & Bromley AC in 63min 31sec, who finished in fourth and won the vets over 45 prize.

Participation numbers had recovered well from the previous race in August 2021 which due to the influence of Covid had just 402 finishers. The atmosphere was really good and it was like the dark clouds of the last 2 years had lifted. The race organisers were once again grateful to; title race sponsors, local property developer Pentland Homes; sub sponsor, local running shop “The Running Outlet”; and Christ Church University who once again lent their Sports Centre as race HQ.

The event was supporting a new charity in Demelza Hospice Care for Children. They helped the event with the provision of marshals and received a donation from organising club, Canterbury based Invicta East Kent Athletic Club. There were various other age group winners as follows :

Men V50 Stephen Male (Folkestone Running Club) 58min 01sec

Men V60 Gregory Norman (Canterbury Harriers) 66min 06sec

Men V70 Jon Wigley (Invicta East Kent AC) 75min 30sec

Ladies V35 Claire Day (Tonbridge AC) 63min 59sec

Ladies V55 Christine Costiff (Ashford & District RRC) 72min 18sec

Ladies V65 Jan Delaney (Unattached) 95min 46sec

In the men’s team race, Invicta East Kent AC (Cole Gibbens, Tom Storer, Chris Fullerton and Ben Hall) managed to win what was a very close contest with Medway & Maidstone AC and Folkestone RC third. In the ladies’ team race, Kent AC had 3 strong finishers (Teresa Murphy, Eliza Grant and Victoria Buck) that allowed them the victory ahead of Folkestone RC and Ashford & District RRC third. Race Director Glenn Mousley said : “What a race ! Following Covid, we are back with a bang. The atmosphere was electric and there was positivity all around. Numbers were back up after last summer’s race and it was great to see all the club teams with group photos being taken both before and after the race. Conditions were ideal and there were umpteen happy faces at the end of the race by the many that had achieved personal bests. We were pleased to see the winning male and female athletes from last years’ race return to triumph again, and were happy to see Charlie set such an impressive course record. I would also like to thank all of the runners for helping to make the race happen and to the many volunteers and organisers who give up their time to work on the race. We hope to be back next January.”