Only managing to get three men out for the New Forest 10 had seen Bournemouth AC slip down to fifth in the A1 division. They wouldn’t be improving on that at the Gosport Half Marathon either as only Sanjai Sharma and Patrick Kingston had signed up for it. They were joined at the Gosport Half Marathon by Max Yao who prefers the longer distance races.

Completing the Run Bournemouth Half Marathon in 1 hour 53 minutes in October, Max was hoping to eclipse that benchmark at the Gosport Half Marathon. Sanjai ran the Gloucester Half Marathon in March in 1:35 and Heron Half Marathon and the end of June in 1:34, so his target for the Gosport Half Marathon was under 1:35.

Patrick Kingston hadn’t done any half marathon races so far this year but he had done some that were a lot further than that. He covered 58 miles at the TOR130 Tot Dret in Italy in September. He also did La Moins’Hard in Chamonix which was 70km with 5,600m of ascent.

Earlier in the year he successfully completed the Ultra Trail Vipava Valley in Slovenia which was 110km. with 4,800m of ascent. He’s done the Gosport Half Marathon twice before, recording a time of 1:25:46 last year and 1:25:05 in 2022 when he was running for Ealing Eagles.

He did the Weymouth 10 in October in in 1:07:24 and the Alton 10 in May in 1:07:56. His Purbeck Trail Series performances this year showed he was in good form, finishing 9th in the Beast, 11th in the Black Hill Run 10k and 10th at the Studland Stampede. He wasn’t able to secure an entry for the Blue Castle Run though which would have given him the required four to score and would have likely put him second in the M40 category.

It was quite a strong field for the Gosport Half Marathon this year, with City of Salisbury man Jaymee Domoney one of the start names set to feature. He is the boyfriend of Bournemouth AC member Sophie Read and ran brilliantly at the Great South Run to finish 16th in a time of 51:33.

He also finished 5th in the Overton 10 in 26:31 and won the Purbeck 10k in June with a time of 32:12. He broke 1 hour 8 minutes in his last half marathon as well, which was Run Bournemouth in 2024.

Southampton AC star Aiden Lennan was competing as well and he finished one place behind Jaymee Domoney at the Great South Run, recording a time of 51:40. He ran the Berlin Half Marathon in under 1 hour 7 minutes earlier in the year and finished 4th in the Gosport Half Marathon last year in just under 1:10.

James Baker of Chichester was doing it as well. He finished second to Rob McTaggart at the Marwell Zoo 10k in a month where he was doing a challenge to run a sub 60 ten miler every day. He came 7th in the Run Bournemouth Half Marathon in a time of 1:11:33.

Joshua Price of Vectis Academy was at the top of the table in the Hampshire Road Race League scoring charts this season after winning the New Forest 10k, coming third at the Overton 5 and second at the Totton 10k.

Gary Marshall of Ryde Harriers was second in the men’s individual table so far after finishing second at the New Forest 10, 6th at the Overton 5 and 4th at the Totton 10k. He was runner up the Brandon Cuell of Fareham in the overall standings last season.

Rob Arkell of Poole Runners was also competing at the Gosport Half Marathon and he ran a PB of 54:31 at the Great South Run which saw him finish 41st. He also ran his first ever sub 33 minute 10k at Round the Lakes in September, finishing 5th in 32:53. He’d even got a 5k PB of 15:33 at one of the Friday Night Under the Lights events, but could he add a new half marathon PB to his resumé?

Unfortunately for Patrick Kingston, it turned out not to be race he wanted. He hurt his achilleas early on in the race and it was  quite painful for the rest of the run, meaning he couldn’t go full blast. Instead he turned it into a sort of tempo run, going at about 6:40 to 6:45 sort of pace.

His splits were amazingly consistent throughout the race and he still crossed the line in 1:27:51 which put him in 164th place overall out of 1,669. He’d came in 22nd out of 142 in the M45 category which was good but he was a couple of minutes slower than his run from last year. Given the circumstances though, with the fact that he had to nurse his achilleas the whole way, that was a solid effort.

The conditions were pretty good on the way, as it wasn’t really a very strong wind. That certainly helped as the Gosport Half Marathon is one of those races that is very much influenced by the weather in terms of how difficult it is. It’s a relatively flat route, with a few minor undulations on the inland sections. It’s a two-lapper, so you know what to expect in the second half of the race, which can help.

Sanjai ran pretty well to complete the course in 1:34:06, which put him in 290th place overall and 10th out of 64 in the M60 category. He’d managed to beat his target of 1:35 so from that perspective, it was job done for Sanjai.

Max Yao‘s dream target for a half marathon was under 1 hour 50 minutes. She’d worked out that to achieve that she needed to go at about 8:20 pace. She managed to sustain that for the whole of the first lap but couldn’t keep it going in the second half.

Her pace then started to drift to around 8:45, or even 9 minutes per mile. That cost her in the end and she went over the line in 1:53:04 which put her in 855th place on chip, although she came 848th on gun time. She was 189th female out of 640 and 24th out of 89 in the W35 category.

Amazingly, it was almost an identical time to what she did in the Run Bournemouth Half Marathon and quite a similar performance in the way that she tailed off in the second half.

Jaymee Domoney was going at under 5:10 pace for the first five miles and no one else could keep up with that, not even Aiden Lennan. Hence, it turned into a bit of a time trial for Jaymee but he kept pushing as best he could.

He was just over 5:10 pace for the next few miles before dropping to 5:18 or 5:19 pace for his 9th, 10th and 11th miles. He then clocked a 5:15 for mile 12 before finishing strongly with a 5:10 for his last mile split. It was a superb solo effort from Jaymee and he crossed the line in 1:08:38 in the end.

Aiden Lennan was his closest competitor but was quite a way back, finishing in 1:09:24. Joshua Price completed the top three in 1:09:58, with Greg Wright of Fleet & Crookham taking 4th in 1:11:33.

James Baker got over the line in 5th place, recording a time of 1:11:47 and Gary Marshall claimed 6th in 1:12:45. Unattached runner George Walker finished 7th in 1:13:14, with Rob Arkell doing it again and nailing another PB. He got round in 1:13:51, which put him in 8th place.

Lesley Locks of Aldershot Farnham & District was the first woman to make it to the finish, arriving in 1:22:45 which put her in 69th place overall. Rachel Walsh of Alton Runners was second in 1:25:01, which put her in 99th place. Kathryn Gurney of Bristol and West was third female in 1:25:53 and she came 116th overall.

Valeria Sesto was 4th female and first W50 in 1:26:54, which put her in 133rd place. Geraldine Moffat of Brighton & Hove City was 6th lady and 1st W60 in 1:27:12. She was 141st overall.

Ryde Harriers got the win the Men’s A1 division, as they did at the New Forest 10. Only just though, as it was quite tight between them, Denmead Striders and Winchester Running Club. Denmead were second by one placing ahead of Winchester, who are currently top of the table. Fareham weren’t far behind in fourth either.

Denmead Striders are currently second in the table, with Lordshill in third and Alton in fourth. After not having a team again, Bournemouth AC dropped to 7th in the standings.

Denmead Striders got the win in Women’s A1 division, with Winchester Running Club being edged out into second for the first time this season. Liss were third with Alton in fourth. Winchester are still comfortably top after winning the other three races, with Liss in second and Denmead third.

Southampton got a rare win in the Men’s A2 division, beating table toppers Hardley Runners into second place. Vectis Academy only finished 9th so they dropped down to second despite their blistering start, with two wins and second place.

New Forest Runners were the lowest scorers in the Women’s A2 division  and they currently sit fourth in the table, with Totton currently at the top.

Fleet & Crookham tend to get the lowest score in the Men’s A3 division when they get a team out and they did for the Gosport Half. Isle of Wight Road Runners were second with Hamwic Harriers third and Romsey Road Runners fourth. Hamwic Harriers have a good lead at the top of that division though.

Hamwic Harriers are also top of the Women’s A3 division and they’d won every race so far this season. That trend continued at the Gosport Half, with only four the clubs getting a scoring team out.

Winchester Running Club have also won all four races in the Men’s B1 division and it looks like it could be an easy win for them this season. Lordshill are currently second in that division. Winchester Running Club also won in the Women’s B1 division and are top of the table after three wins out of four.

The next race of the season is the Victory 5 and the Bournemouth AC men are again low on numbers in that one. They will have top hope they have a quartet of some description turning out, otherwise their chances of retaining the league title they won so handsomely last season will be looking very bleak.