Steve Way (1st) and Jon Sharkey (6th) made up 40% of the England winning team at the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100k International at Gravesend on Saturday 3 May, but there is, of course, much more to say about both Steve and Jon.
Concerning Steve, just to report that his winning time of 6.19.20 is nothing less than a NEW ALL-TIME BRITISH RECORD for the 100k distance on the road. Furthermore, it places Steve amongst the top ten 100k roadrunners in the world EVER! We asked after Steve‘s tremendous run in the London Marathon, where he was the third Briton to cross the line, “are there sufficient superlatives to describe Steve‘s achievement?” – well the answer increasingly seems to be “no”! Steve‘s finishing time was over 45 minutes ahead of the second -placed athlete (also running for England), who must have been lapped several times on the 1.5k loop course, and firmly put aside any lingering doubt that the 2.16 marathon, only three weeks earlier, would affect his performance. The race incorporated the British Athletics National 100k Championships with the result that Steve is a Gold Medal winner, and a British National Champion. No doubt it will be recalled that Steve was the fastest 100k runner in the world last year after his race in Sweden (unfortunately the 100k World Championships were cancelled) and that in 2012 he was the World Champion over 50k. We’ve said it before, and we say it again, we are very,very lucky to have such a talented and affable athlete in our midst.
Jon finished 6th in the race, a very impressive result considering this was his first attempt at this distance. Jon‘s rise to the top echelons of Ultra Running has been astonishingly rapid. It was only last year, after resting following his Ironman Triathlon, that Jon was persuaded by Steve to take up the challenge of 100k running. So to try to qualify for selection for the England team in Saturday’s race, Jon competed in a 50k race in Newcastle in December, with virtually no specific preparatory training, and ran a highly disciplined, evenly-paced and intelligent race to finish, as planned, within a few minutes of the qualifying time. And so Jon was selected, and as a result helped his country to victory on Saturday. His 6th position demonstrates that describing Jon as in the “top echelons” of Ultra Running is no exaggeration.
Many congratulations to both Steve and Jon, with our best wishes for a rapid recovery and a return to competition.