Greater Manchester Marathon (From Messenger Newspapers)

Greater Manchester Marathon

11:51am Monday 30th April 2012 in News

THOUSANDS of runners braved atrocious weather conditions to take part in the Greater Manchester Marathon on Sunday.

Athletics legend Ron Hill and Darren Campbell, one of Britain’s most successful sprinters, started the race and they both sent the runners on their way through the sporting heart of Trafford.

The course went through Trafford Park, Sale, Brooklands, Timperley, Altricham, Dunham Massey, Partington, Carrington and Urmston before finishing in Stretford’s Longford Park, with some of the highlights including the Imperial War Museum, the new Media City, and views of Old Trafford.

The course was tackled by 4452 runners on a cold wet and windy morning.

The race was won by Dave Norman of Altrincham and District Athletic Club in 2 hours 24 minutes 50 seconds.

He overtook the long time leader Andi Jones of Salford in the last two miles and pushed on to cross the finishing line in Longford Park a minute and 33 seconds ahead.

The first woman across the finish line was Rebecca Johnson from Bellahouston Road Runners in a gun time of 03:05:26 followed by runner up Sally Malir from Ikley Harriers in 03:10:46. Jessica Oliver-Bell from Trafford AC came third in a time of 03:10:50.

Twelve other Altrincham runners also made it to the finish and more than 80 club members helped marshal the course.

Dave Norman said: "The course was a good one on the whole as it was generally fast, varied and the finish was a well selected location.

" The highlights were Sale, Brooklands, Timperley and Altrincham. Basically any section from 6 to 12 miles.

"And the last half mile I enjoyed for obvious reasons but I do think it was a good choice of finish area. Lowlights were the soul destroying section from Dunham Massey to Carrington.

"The weather was at its worst, we were being battered by galeforce winds, hailstones and heavy rain - this did not help but it was just totally bleak with minimal crowd support and marshalling at a time you really needed it."

Altrincham results: http://82.113.148.151/race/k6/club/9857_altrincham+athletics+club 1 Dave Norman 2.24.46.

6 Nick Leigh 2.38.22.

45 Dave Alderson 2.56.27.

68 Andrew Whittingham 2.59.07.

98 Peter Abraham 2.59.54.

99 Matt Billingham 3.01.31.

170 Josh Smith 3.09.48.

273 Richard Pavey 3.16.29.

438 Daniel Sate 3.26.38.

729 Stephen Nicol 3.34.50.

835 Alan Williams 3.38.12.

965 James Thackray 3.40.57.

1257 Tom Lavin 3.49.15.

1709 Mansel Pope 3.57.40.

2540 Hugh McKenna 4.15.23.