Fourteen-year-old pupil Beth Kidger powered her way through the adidas Women’s 5k Challenge road race in London at the weekend (Sunday, September 7th) and finished 48th out of 19,000 runners.
Beth, who lives in Lindfield, near Haywards Heath, trains three times a week, involving two track sessions and one run. She is a member of Phoenix Athletics Club and is trained by John Biggs (Sally Gunnell’s husband) and Paul Collicut at Withdean stadium in Brighton.
Beth said she enjoyed running through London’s Hyde Park and felt that she had run hard. “I was unsure of how well I had done when I crossed the finish line but I felt confident it was a strong performance,” she said.
Ardingly College Director of Sport Neil Gutteridge congratulated Beth and said: “When you look at the race and see the calibre of the runners taking part – some of them Olympic and world class athletes - it really was an outstanding achievement for Beth to finish within the top 50 along with the best.”
Beth’s time was 20.11; her identical twin sister, Megan,also at Ardingly College, finished just a minute behind her.
Olympic 5000m bronze medallist Meseret Defar won the race in 15.01 ahead of world junior 10,000m record holder Linet Masai (Kenya) in 15.31 and Britain’s Jo Pavey (15.32).
The event, which was in its 11th year in London’s Hyde Park, was held at three sites simultaneously with 19,000 women in total taking part in the capital in addition to venues in Liverpool and Birmingham.
