It’s been almost a four-year wait, but on Sunday at 11am, 122 runners set off on the lap of the Longford Hall playing fields that made up the first kilometre of the Newport 10k, and signalled the return of the Newport 10k to the local racing calendar for the first time since June 2019.
The Newport 10k has a varied history. It previously existed as part of the town’s carnival, with runners running through the town centre as part of the event, before the race was rebooted in 2018 with a route that took in a tour of Edgmond and some of the tracks around the south end of the Harper Adams campus. For 2023, some modifications were made to the 2018 course, whilst remaining broadly similar.
The race starts and finishes just in front of the new Lynn James Pavilion at Longford Hall, part of Haberdashers’ Adams, the local boys’ grammar school. Runners first complete a lap of the playing fields, before heading across farmland towards Edgmond. After passing through the village, the route takes runners up to Harper Adams, where newborn lambs bleated at the runners this year, before heading back to the finish via another pass of Edgmond village.
The recent rain made for tough conditions, with some of the already narrow footpaths turning very muddy, to add to the elevation challenges provided by some of the footpaths around Edgmond (the race features over 100 metres of climbing), as well as the kissing gates and stiles that must be navigated along the route.
Even as the volunteers and runners arrived at Longford on Sunday, it was raining. Thankfully, the rain cleared up just in time for the first event of the day – the fun run for children aged 3-14. 21 youngsters completed a 1-kilometre lap of the fields to rounds of applause from everyone watching, and around an hour later, the main event, the 10k, was started by event organiser Jenny Williams. The rain set in again before the race finished, but it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the runners, spectators and volunteers.
The first runner to navigate the tough conditions was Andy Dunkerley, who completed the course in 42 minutes, 3 seconds. He was closely followed by second placed Jonathan Tindall of Telford AC, who was just 7 seconds back. Alex Millington, the leading runner from host club Newport & District RC was a further 6 seconds behind in third. The winning female runner was Sarah Mackness of City of Stoke AC, who finished 7th overall in a time of 47:28. Lauren Morley of Shrewsbury AC was second, and 9th overall, with a time of 49:45, whilst the podium was rounded out by Emily Smith, who was 14th overall in 50:53.
It being their home race, there was a good contingent from Newport & District Running Club. David Clarke just missed out on a podium place, as he took 4th place in a time of 43:28, whilst Ashley Moore was 6th in 46:20. David Brown took 16th place, not far ahead of Phil Dolding, who was 18th in a time of 51:50. Aaron Nicholas was next for Newport, 24th overall with his time of 52:46, whilst Phil Cross finished 34th in 55:34, and Alex Cochrane was 40th (and first under-20 finisher) in 55:56.
Neil Fairbrother placed 43rd in a time of 56:49, 4 places ahead of Rik Skingsley, who clocked 57:23. In 57th place was Gary Mountford with his time of 59:42, with John Metzger just 1 place back in 1:00:21. Phil Hardy was 74th in a time of 1:03:33, followed by Ralph Humphries, who was 76th in 1:04:04. Emily Holland took 100th place in 1:10:53, whilst Sally Morgan was 108th in 1:16:38 and Anne Strowger took 111st, and first in her category, with a time of 1:18:46.
NDRC’s next race will be the Tibberton Trot, which takes place at 11am on Sunday September 10th – entries open now at https://www.avtiming.com/tibberton
Full results: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/33m
Photos courtesy of Martin Murdoch (exit from, and re-entry to, Longford grounds)
Photos courtesy of Tom Pope (start, far end of playing fields on first lap, approach to finish line)
Photos courtesy of Steve Cannon (at 2k and 9.5k – photos taken by his grandaughter)
Newport & District Running Club 