| This weekend (3-4 April) a small UK contingent travelled to Rouen to compete in the Rouen annual 24 hours race. Some 47 started and 41 finished the 1.5 kms course having endured pretty much all types of weather. There were 14 female competitors. Apart from the UK other nations taking part included Germany (Thomas Betz), Belgium (Alexander Vandenhoeck) and Belarus (Marina Tarassevich) who all finished in the top five positions. The overall winner was Alain Costil of France who completed 204 kms, and second was our own Sandra Brown who completed 198 kms. The other UK finishers were Richard Brown who completed 174 kms in 7th. Position, closely followed by Chris Flint who finished 9th having competed 166.5 kms. Kathy Crilley, who had raced the Connemara marathon the week before, completed 51 kms as a training spin, and once refreshed, helped Vicky Brown who did valiant work to ensure we all had drinks and food. She is greatly thanked. Sandra walked a very sensible and strategically correct race, and Richard also walked very well. He took ‘time out’ from the race to ease stomach cramps before returning and finishing strongly. Chris Flint suffered from the blustery wind and accompanying rain, but put in some hard work at the latter stages to ensure he surpassed the 100 mile mark (160.9kms, significant to the English if not to our Continental friends.) I have rarely seen Sandra walk with such consummate fluidity and control. Her style was excellent. This result should give her great confidence for the Paris-Colmar in early June this year. We all wish her well in an event where physical strength and stamina must be matched with a strong mental will to rise above the difficulties. Monsieur Francis Herbert organised the event and it was well supported by the many Northern France athletic clubs with competitors in the race. The 1.5 kms surface was not good and at one point it traversed the entry and exit to a domestic fair which seemed to have attracted most of Rouen. This caused some difficulties especially as there were so few marshalls, and none at the far points of the course to ensure all rounded the two extreme ends. There was no emergency first aid. But it all went off without mishap and a clear results sheet was produced for each competitor at the awards presentations an hour after the race finish. An innovation that should be considered for UK long distance races is the use of an electronic bib number that each competitor had to wear, and as each completed a circuit they went through a wide metal arch which identified the number to the recorder’s computer. This event was good evidence of the strong following race walking retains in France. Written by Chris Flint |