Here it is ... the selection criteria has been announced for England in the following ultra races next year:
- Commonwealth Championships - 24 hr race and c.50k trail race
- Anglo Celtic Plate 100k
Personally I'm only interested in the Commonwealth Championships 24 hr race and I read that selection will be in two waves:
(1a) for those men who have run over 230k between 1 May 2010 and 3 April 2011
(1b) for those women who have run over 205k between 1 May 2010 and 3 April 2011
(2a) for those men who have run over 225k between 1 September 2009 and 5 June 2011
(2b) for those women who have run over 200k between 1 September 2009 and 5 June 2011
I would imagine that only performances in race with an IAU label will be taken into consideration therefore I believe the following men from England have met the criteria:
Richard Quennell ... 246.121k ... World C'ships (14 May 2010) and
... 234.813k ... London (18 Oct 2009)
Jim Rogers ... 244.108k ... World C'ships (14 May 2010) and
... 228.214k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
me ... 238.286k ... Perth (5 Sep 2010) and
... 231.506k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
and also ... 222.760k ... World C'ships (14 May 2010)
Pat Robbins ... 231.086k ... Perth (5 Sep 2010)
and also ... 215.818k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
The following men would also be in with a chance of selection as they have run over 215k:
Keith Straw ... 221.882k ... Cleveland (USA) (4 Oct 2009)
Chris Finill ... 219.032k ... World C'ships (14 May 2010)
Neil Bryant ... 218.425k ... London (18 Oct 2009)
The women who have met the criteria so far are:
Sharon Gayter ... 226.489k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
Vicky Skelton ... 212.683k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
and also ... 198.098k ... Perth (5 Sep 2010)
Angela Sadler ... 205.984k ... Perth (5 Sep 2010)
Marie Doke ... 203.985k ... World C'ships (14 May 2010) and
... 201.631k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
The following woman should also be in with a chance of selection as they have managed a performance of over 185k:
Sandra Brown ... 187.119k ... Commonwealth C'ships (18 Sep 2009)
Of course there is still quite a few months in which other runners can register a qualifying performance ... but I'm confident of my selection.
As only five men and five women can be selected it appears that for the women it's quite straightforward but not so for the men at all. And then there's 'current fitness' to take into account when the selectors meet next April and June.
I would suggest we have a couple of good teams though.
Showing posts with label Vicky Skelton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vicky Skelton. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
team news
Found, on the England Athletics website, all the news relating to the England team for the Six Nations 24 hr race in Perth. I mentioned earlier that my selection had been confirmed and now I can also say that Richard Quennell, Chris Finill, Pat Robbins, Marie Doke, Vicky Skelton, Sandra Brown and Angie Sadler have also been selected.
Congratulations to them all.
Richard ran exceptionally well at this year's World & European Championships. Chris was also in Brive and also took part in last year's Commonwealth Championships, as did Pat, Marie, Vicky (second woman in Keswick) and Sandra.
Pat holds the course record for the 145 mile Grand Union Canal Race, Marie was also at this year's World & Europeans. Vicky was at last year's World & European Championships in Italy whilst Angie ran well in the Commonwealth Championships 100km race only about nine weeks after winning outright the Hull 24 hr race.
Norman Wilson, when he phoned, explained that the selectors have decided to send a fourth man and a fourth woman for 'development' purposes - these will be non-scoring members of the team. The aim of this policy is to help those who are just below international selection get the necessary experience. I hope it works out that way and we get a really good performance in Perth and a few more runners run the distance needed for next year's championships.
I plan to do well too of course.
Which reminds me ... it's also been decided that there will be another Commonwealth Championships for mountain and ultra running and it will be staged in either 2011 or 2013. This depends on what bids are received for staging them. Good news indeed.
Congratulations to them all.
Richard ran exceptionally well at this year's World & European Championships. Chris was also in Brive and also took part in last year's Commonwealth Championships, as did Pat, Marie, Vicky (second woman in Keswick) and Sandra.
Pat holds the course record for the 145 mile Grand Union Canal Race, Marie was also at this year's World & Europeans. Vicky was at last year's World & European Championships in Italy whilst Angie ran well in the Commonwealth Championships 100km race only about nine weeks after winning outright the Hull 24 hr race.
Norman Wilson, when he phoned, explained that the selectors have decided to send a fourth man and a fourth woman for 'development' purposes - these will be non-scoring members of the team. The aim of this policy is to help those who are just below international selection get the necessary experience. I hope it works out that way and we get a really good performance in Perth and a few more runners run the distance needed for next year's championships.
I plan to do well too of course.
Which reminds me ... it's also been decided that there will be another Commonwealth Championships for mountain and ultra running and it will be staged in either 2011 or 2013. This depends on what bids are received for staging them. Good news indeed.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
TV news coverage
Did anyone watch television last Sunday evening ... in particular the Sports Personality Of The Year on BBC 1. Here are my thoughts:
Let me begin by congratulating the BBC on a first class program. As always it provided an excellent general review of the sporting year.
This year though I felt that something was missing. As the program was essentially a review of the sporting year I feel that mention should have been made of a Commonwealth Championships which took place only three months ago.
The championships in question had 16 gold medals at stake which included men, women and teams. British sports men and women won well over 50% of the medals on offer. Yet no mention was made of their achievements either on sports programs or news reports at the time or on the Sports Personality Of The Year program. A little unfair I believe.
What's more, these championships were not for a so-called minority sport such as darts, gymnastics or archery but for two branches of the mainstream sport of athletics known as ultra distance running and mountain/fell running.
In my event, the 24 hr running race, John Pares (Wales) claimed an individual bronze medal in the men's race. The England women's team were awarded the gold medal and the England men's team the silver medal. Sharon Gayter (England) won the women's race with Vicky Skelton (England) finishing second and the Scottish women claiming a team bronze medal to add to the team bronze medal their men had won.
Yet no mention of any of this on a national news or sports program when the event was held in September.
In May next year the 24 hr World Challenge will be held at Brive in France and many people have predicted that the UK runners have a good chance of bringing home some medals. Hopefully mention will be made on BBC news and/or sports programs of all their achievements.
As England's first finisher in the Commonwealth Championships (fifth overall) I know that ultra distance runners are just as dedicated and train equally as hard as athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah - but without any lottery funding whatsoever.
The overall perception of ultra distance running with the public is not helped by commentators such as Brendan Foster who portray the marathon as the ultimate endurance race. It isn't, for ultra distance runners such as myself 26 miles is just another training run - not a particularly long one either.
Hopefully things will change regarding media coverage of our events ... but I fear it will be almost as long as some of our races.
Let me begin by congratulating the BBC on a first class program. As always it provided an excellent general review of the sporting year.
This year though I felt that something was missing. As the program was essentially a review of the sporting year I feel that mention should have been made of a Commonwealth Championships which took place only three months ago.
The championships in question had 16 gold medals at stake which included men, women and teams. British sports men and women won well over 50% of the medals on offer. Yet no mention was made of their achievements either on sports programs or news reports at the time or on the Sports Personality Of The Year program. A little unfair I believe.
What's more, these championships were not for a so-called minority sport such as darts, gymnastics or archery but for two branches of the mainstream sport of athletics known as ultra distance running and mountain/fell running.
In my event, the 24 hr running race, John Pares (Wales) claimed an individual bronze medal in the men's race. The England women's team were awarded the gold medal and the England men's team the silver medal. Sharon Gayter (England) won the women's race with Vicky Skelton (England) finishing second and the Scottish women claiming a team bronze medal to add to the team bronze medal their men had won.
Yet no mention of any of this on a national news or sports program when the event was held in September.
In May next year the 24 hr World Challenge will be held at Brive in France and many people have predicted that the UK runners have a good chance of bringing home some medals. Hopefully mention will be made on BBC news and/or sports programs of all their achievements.
As England's first finisher in the Commonwealth Championships (fifth overall) I know that ultra distance runners are just as dedicated and train equally as hard as athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah - but without any lottery funding whatsoever.
The overall perception of ultra distance running with the public is not helped by commentators such as Brendan Foster who portray the marathon as the ultimate endurance race. It isn't, for ultra distance runners such as myself 26 miles is just another training run - not a particularly long one either.
Hopefully things will change regarding media coverage of our events ... but I fear it will be almost as long as some of our races.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
team news
Recently there's been a couple of last minute additions to the England team for the 24hr race in next week's Commonwealth Championships. The five men are: Ken Fancett, Chris Finill, Pat Robbins, Jim Rogers and myself. The five women are: Sandra Brown, Marie Doke, Sharon Gayter, Vicky Skelton and Ramona Thevenet-Smith.
There are 22 runners in the men's race and 22 in the women's race from the following countries:
Australia (six men and six women)
Canada (three men and four women)
England (five men and five women)
India (one man)
Isle Of Man (one man and one woman)
Kenya (one man)
New Zealand (one man and three women)
Scotland (three men and three women)
Wales (one man)
A few surprises here: Kenya - hope their guy isn't as good as the top 10k and marathon runners; only four countries have sent men's teams - increasing the likelihood of England being among the medals; no runners from South Africa (none in the 100k race either).
I would guess that the individual favourites would be Martin Fryer and Jonathan Blake (both from Australia) and Sharon Gayter (although Vicky Skelton isn't far behind). Martin ran a fantastic 48hr race in Surgeres earlier this year to place second on the all time list with 433.686 km - his feet were a real mess afterwards though. Sharon had a great run at Badwater [hope she's recovered].
Still relaxing lots - no loud music, no late nights, no stress ... and no caffeine.
There are 22 runners in the men's race and 22 in the women's race from the following countries:
Australia (six men and six women)
Canada (three men and four women)
England (five men and five women)
India (one man)
Isle Of Man (one man and one woman)
Kenya (one man)
New Zealand (one man and three women)
Scotland (three men and three women)
Wales (one man)
A few surprises here: Kenya - hope their guy isn't as good as the top 10k and marathon runners; only four countries have sent men's teams - increasing the likelihood of England being among the medals; no runners from South Africa (none in the 100k race either).
I would guess that the individual favourites would be Martin Fryer and Jonathan Blake (both from Australia) and Sharon Gayter (although Vicky Skelton isn't far behind). Martin ran a fantastic 48hr race in Surgeres earlier this year to place second on the all time list with 433.686 km - his feet were a real mess afterwards though. Sharon had a great run at Badwater [hope she's recovered].
Still relaxing lots - no loud music, no late nights, no stress ... and no caffeine.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Ultra Squad Weekend
I was at the England Athletics Ultra Distance Squad Weekend in Gloucester on Saturday and Sunday. I wasn't particularly looking forward to the five hour journey involving two buses and two trains. It could have been worse though.
Everything was fine until we reached Birmingham a bit late. The train was supposed to arrive at 1107 but arrived at 1128. My next train was supposed to leave Birmingham at 1130 so I was beginning to panic a bit until I found that it was due to leave from the same platform I had just arrived at ... but it was going to be 10 minutes late. We all got on and a few minutes later heard the following message over the public address system: "this train will now leave at 1200 because there's no driver available."
Arrived in Gloucester half an hour late and not too happy.
Got to the hotel at two o'clock, on the early side but it would give me time to meet everyone before proceedings began at three. Never been invited to one of these before - never considered myself 'elite' before and that's still an unfamiliar tag. Chris Finill, Vicky Skelton, Ramona Thevenet-Smith, Andy Smith, Jez Bragg, Dominic Croft, Matthew Lynas, Brian Cole and the other runners I spoke to were great at making me feel very welcome and I'm very grateful to them for that (particularly Chris and Ramona - you were both fantastic).
I always find these type of get togethers rather awkward, mainly because I'm a shy and introverted person by nature - mainly because of my medical history. Apart from cancer as an adult I had recurring major throat problems as a child and I spent three or four weeks in hospital every 18 months or so having throat surgery and not being able to talk for a couple of months afterwards.
Had less than four hours sleep before going for a run on Sunday morning with Jez Bragg, Chris Finill, Matthew Lynas and Dominic Croft. I found that quite a surreal experience ... running down the road with a group of international runners, chatting away and covering well over nine miles in 70 minutes or less before breakfast.
Then came a long relaxed breakfast before the rain started. That wasn't good as I had to walk back into Gloucester to the train station [no buses there on a Sunday]. Journey home was uneventful except that we left Sheffield seven minutes late and arrived in Leeds two minutes early !!! The scheduled journey of 48 minutes actually took 37 minutes - very strange.
Overall a good weekend. I picked up a few tips from Chris Finill, Andy Smith and Hilary Walker and learned about the forthcoming Commonwealth Championships. It still rankles a bit that I haven't been officially selected yet even though I exceeded the tough qualification criteria easily in my last 24 hr race ... all this waiting makes planning and training a bit difficult.
Oh yes, less than four hours sleep. Well, the bloke I was sharing a room with snores, loudly. Very loudly at times. So loudly that, a couple of hours after getting into bed I decided to try using my MP3 earphones as makeshift earplugs. Not much better but I eventually drifted off to sleep ... sort of.
Everything was fine until we reached Birmingham a bit late. The train was supposed to arrive at 1107 but arrived at 1128. My next train was supposed to leave Birmingham at 1130 so I was beginning to panic a bit until I found that it was due to leave from the same platform I had just arrived at ... but it was going to be 10 minutes late. We all got on and a few minutes later heard the following message over the public address system: "this train will now leave at 1200 because there's no driver available."
Arrived in Gloucester half an hour late and not too happy.
Got to the hotel at two o'clock, on the early side but it would give me time to meet everyone before proceedings began at three. Never been invited to one of these before - never considered myself 'elite' before and that's still an unfamiliar tag. Chris Finill, Vicky Skelton, Ramona Thevenet-Smith, Andy Smith, Jez Bragg, Dominic Croft, Matthew Lynas, Brian Cole and the other runners I spoke to were great at making me feel very welcome and I'm very grateful to them for that (particularly Chris and Ramona - you were both fantastic).
I always find these type of get togethers rather awkward, mainly because I'm a shy and introverted person by nature - mainly because of my medical history. Apart from cancer as an adult I had recurring major throat problems as a child and I spent three or four weeks in hospital every 18 months or so having throat surgery and not being able to talk for a couple of months afterwards.
Had less than four hours sleep before going for a run on Sunday morning with Jez Bragg, Chris Finill, Matthew Lynas and Dominic Croft. I found that quite a surreal experience ... running down the road with a group of international runners, chatting away and covering well over nine miles in 70 minutes or less before breakfast.
Then came a long relaxed breakfast before the rain started. That wasn't good as I had to walk back into Gloucester to the train station [no buses there on a Sunday]. Journey home was uneventful except that we left Sheffield seven minutes late and arrived in Leeds two minutes early !!! The scheduled journey of 48 minutes actually took 37 minutes - very strange.
Overall a good weekend. I picked up a few tips from Chris Finill, Andy Smith and Hilary Walker and learned about the forthcoming Commonwealth Championships. It still rankles a bit that I haven't been officially selected yet even though I exceeded the tough qualification criteria easily in my last 24 hr race ... all this waiting makes planning and training a bit difficult.
Oh yes, less than four hours sleep. Well, the bloke I was sharing a room with snores, loudly. Very loudly at times. So loudly that, a couple of hours after getting into bed I decided to try using my MP3 earphones as makeshift earplugs. Not much better but I eventually drifted off to sleep ... sort of.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
World Challenge & European Championships
All the best to Sharon Gayter, Vicky Skelton, Pauline Walker, Lynne Kuz and Stephen Mason who are representing the UK in Italy this weekend at the 24 hr World Challenge and European Championships.
I believe they fly out today, the race is Saturday and Sunday, and they return home on Monday.
You can keep up to date on the IAU website by clicking on 'Live Updates' which is near the top, in the middle.
There's a good womens team going and if they all perform well they could bring back a medal ... hope so.
I believe they fly out today, the race is Saturday and Sunday, and they return home on Monday.
You can keep up to date on the IAU website by clicking on 'Live Updates' which is near the top, in the middle.
There's a good womens team going and if they all perform well they could bring back a medal ... hope so.
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