AFTER the efforts of Dudley Kingswinford Running Club athletes were thwarted by a day-long heatwave at the London Marathon there were similar conditions for another of the blue hoops who put his training to the test over the 26.2 mile distance.

Dave Norman travelled to Denmark for the Copenhagen marathon in top form but with the sun blazing on the city centre course temperatures rose to 24 degrees putting paid to his sub three plan. In an incident packed race, including being tripped at five miles, he was able to finish in 3.20.23 in 661st place with injuries requiring a post race visit to the medical tent.

Dave Hickman also competed over the classic distance in the Shakespeare Marathon at Stratford upon Avon, finishing in 3.58.32 in 181st place. And over the half marathon distance Mark Homer was 62nd in 1.29.50 also claiming first place in his age group, Simon Hughes was 73rd in 1.31.05, Dave Fennell was 819th in 2.04.11 and Farrah Hunter-Coley was 1404th in 2.30.33.

And there were plenty of blue hoops on show at the Market Drayton 10k lured by the yoghurt and pork pie presented to all finishers. Gary Bonner was 67th in 39.43, Richard Tonks finished in 42.09, Sergej Lyubovnikov in 44.44, Bob Jones in 49.14, Lisa Kendrick in 49.45, Malcolm Beddall in 50.49, Lee Avery in 51.03, Marie Latreche in 52.27, Amy Pugh in 58.08, Simon Whitehouse in 59.04, Claire Hancox in 1.01.26, Jan Burbie in 1.02.51, Maxine Barker in 1.05.57, Lindsay Willis in 1.07.36, Deb Rochelle in 1.08.48, Kimberley Ball and Helen Noke both finished in 1.10.50, Nicola Wilkinson in 1.12.54, Andrew Perkins in 1.13.42, Sarah Krivosic and Jane Hughes both came home in 1.14.42.

Meanwhile, Stourbridge Running Club had runners out at various races last week.

At the Hagley Stag Run, runners took on a hilly course over two distances. Sarah Trigg completed the 5k event in 31.05 and Sebastien Nicolas finished the 10k in 55.19.

Paul Bradley ran 6.5 miles at the Bulmers Bash in 59.29 and at the Market Drayton 10k, Tom Isherwood was first M35 in 34.30 and Pete Walters finished in 39.36.