IAN EVANS was the first of the three Thornbury runners to finish the Westonbirt House Half Marathon on Good Friday, writes Matt Johnstone.

In glorious sunshine, Ian finished in a highly respectable 24th place out of 421 runners in 1 hour 36:23 mins. Mike Bennewitz completed his 4th half-marathon of 2019 in 2 hours 2 mins and was 182nd and 3rd in his age category. Angela Bushell was a short distance behind in 184th place in 2 hours 2:56 mins. John Fox and Valerie Knight ran in the Westonbirt House Easter 10k, John was 118th out of 609 runners in 52:53 mins and Valerie was 302nd in 1 hour 2:35 mins.

The Sri Chinmoy Tri Club GO TRI Swim Run took place on Sunday at Filton Leisure Centre, comprising a 200m swim and 3K run. It served as a perfect early season race for one of TRC’s most experienced triathletes and a good introduction for those looking to dip their toe to the world of multi-sports events. Richard Phillips has competed in triathlons all around the world, including several Ironman events and was 2nd overall and 1st Vet in a brisk 17:58 mins. Clare Watt was 9th overall and 4th woman in 20:30 mins, followed by Kevin Cundy in 15th in 21:05 mins.

Thornbury runners were spread far and wide on Saturday in 10 different parkruns. Nick Williams was the first to finish out of over 600 runners and he set a big personal best of 17:00 mins at Brueton parkrun in his old stomping ground in the Midlands.

On the Thornbury course, Dylan Roberts was the first to finish in a new personal best of 18:43 mins. Martin Coyle was next in 20:45 mins, followed by Moray Sloan 22:53 mins, Kevin Cundy new PB of 23:22 mins, Clare Watt new PB of 23:28 mins, Chris Foley new PB of 24:03 mins, Michael Owen 25:54 mins, Malcolm Carr 26:29 mins, Nigel Hale 30:41 mins, Rebecca Twyman 31:56 mins and Caron Hale in a new PB of 32:10 mins.

Kevin Wood ran 22:27 mins at Barnstaple, followed by Christopher Pritchard in 27:03 mins and Emma Pritchard in 28:07 mins. At Chipping Sodbury, Hannah Kinlock-Haken ran 20:51 mins followed by Sarah Newnes new PB of 25:11 mins, Jay Bartley 25:43 mins, Pamela MacLeod 36:38 mins and Annette Abbott in her first parkrun in 41:07 mins.

At Birkenhead parkrun, Carol Mosses ran 38:11 mins, Liam Symonds-Barry ran 27:46 mins on Kingsway course in Gloucester and Ian Shepherd ran 28:25 mins at Erddig. Chris Dawes ran 21:36 mins on Severn Bridge and Kevin Arnold completed Helnley Wood in Oswestry in 25:02. Finally, Chris Lee finished the Fire Service College parkrun in 27:27 mins.