With the cross-country season over, athletic activity has split between road racing and track, with Wallasey A.C. enjoying outstanding early success in both.
The best-ever Wallasey performance in the London Marathon was recorded by Dave Wilson who took 329th place in 2.33.58, with John Cottrell the second club member home in 446th place with the excellent time of 2.37.07.
Bob Brimage gained victory in the Wirral Seaside 5 km road race, finishing well clear of the field with a time of 15 minutes 47 seconds. In the Wallasey 10 km vets race, John Wright was first over-50 finisher and was second overall in 34.27. On the track, Keith Simpson gained an 800 metre victory in a Stretford Open meeting with a personal best of 2.02.6.
Competition is clearly going to be tough in this event this season as Dave Walton ran just three-tenths of a second slower in a Cheshire League meeting the following week. Bob Brimage, Dave Pendleton and James Downey have also all begun their season's with sub 2.10 performances.
In the under-13 girl's 800-metre at the Cheshire League meeting, Paula Simpson, Stephanie Warrington and Sara Graves ran well to record times of 2.51, 3.16 and 3.17 respectively, while in the same age group Emma Derwent scored a fine 200-metre victory at Stretford with a time of 28.2 seconds.
Some fine sprint performances have also been produced by the seniors. Paul Beacall and Phil Smith recorded 12.2 and 12.4 seconds respectively over 100 metres, while a fine team performance was shown in the Cheshire League 4 x 400 metres, with Keith Simpson, Dave Walton, Dave Pendleton and Phil Smith combining to take second place.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Thursday, 01/05/1986
Ref 2057