November 28: Lewis Jagger and Elle Roche win the Wolverton 5 at Willen Lake

Despite the near freezing weather and frozen puddles of water on the ground, there were super fast times in this years Wolverton 5. In the Men’s race there was a three-way battle between Lewis Jagger (Sheffield and Dearne) and two Bedford runners, Ben Alcock and Matt Bergin. Lewis, who has already run 23:54 for five miles this year for third in the UK rankings, moved away from Ben in the last 400m to win in 24:05. with Ben two seconds adrift and Matt 10 seconds further back, with times that put them fourth and fifth in the UK rankings. Paul Martelletti (Victoria Park and Tower Hamlets), who has recently moved to Milton Keynes was fourth in 24:34 for ninth in the UK rankings.

The first MMK runner home was Elliot Hind in ninth place in 25:26 to win the Bucks 5 mile Championship, with Steve Tuttle winning the Bucks bronze medal.

In the women’s race there was a great battle between MMK’s Elle Roche and Alice Ritchie, and Hayley Munn (Rugby & Northampton). Alice faded in the second half of the race but Elle managed to get away from Hayley to win by 15 seconds with 28:46 to go tenth in the 2021 UK Five mile Rankings. Elle also won the Bucks Championship with Alice second and Di Farmer third.

Elle’s time moves her to third in the MMK all-time top 10, while Alice’s 30:30 equals the tenth best time.

Pictured above (by Brian Graves) are the early leaders a few hundred metres after the start. The MMK photos (thanks jhmimages) are of Elliot Hind, Ollie Badger, Steve Tuttle, Elle Roche, Jack Pocock, Alice Ritchie, Steve Coomber and Dan Hippey.

Full results from Willen Lakeside