Week Ending - 2025/04/12

BADGERS DUO SEINE-D IT IN PARIS MARATHON

It was very much a case of Tres Bien at the weekend as Badgers power-couple Luke Bennett and Danni Gunn put in superb runs at the Paris marathon in France. Taking in all manner of iconic landmarks in the French capital, the husband and wife duo produced one of the fastest combined marathon times by a Badgers married couple in club history. Bennett was first back, agonisingly close to a dream sub-4 time, crossing the finish line in 4:00:56. His wife Danni was not far behind, bagging a quality time of 4:49:04, a fine reward after an industrious winter training block.

There were personal bests for two of the four athletes involved in the Coventry-based Massey Ferguson 5K on Sunday. Kat Wilson has worked diligently over the winter, transforming herself and her fitness into a lean mean running machine and here she powered home in a PB of 23:07. Alice Belcher is another who has been working hard and her long held ambition of chasing a sub 25 time was finally realized, the former football ace clocking a quite brilliant 24:24, smashing her goal well and truly out of the park. Suzy Farrell ran a pacy 24:55, and vice captain Sharon Jackson performed well in 28:02 on what was a great morning for the quartet.

The London Landmarks half-marathon drew big numbers in 2026, one of whom was Badger Vicki Brunsdon, who posted an enormous PB of 2:15:10, a quarter of an hour quicker than ever achieved previously. 

The Run in the Forest 5 mile race at Conkers saw three Badgers tackling the extended parkrun circuit, also part of the Burton District Summer League, Paul Grubb was first Badger back in 40:46 and Adam McElhone improved on his previous run at this event eight years earlier with a brisk 43:02. Ebony Fennell was first female Badger home in a race that was won by second claim Badger Matt Scarsbrook.

The Big Leicester 10K saw Susie Stringer lead the club home in a respectable 49:37, with Anne-Marie Matthews also going well in 63:22.

Multi-sports icon Jimmy Dewis cemented his legendary status in the field by taking the V50 prize in the Burntwood Aquathon, an event comprising a 400m swim and a 5K run. The former footballing cricket player, who also has had dabblings in road running, triathlon, darts, dominoes, and shove ha’penny, proved once and for all that no sport is safe from his all-round mastery.

Parkrun saw some good performances, notably at Kingsbury Water Park, where serial first-place finisher Danny Warren once again stormed to victory in 17:52. Youngsters Ryan Worrad and Tom Ash took 41 and 78 seconds off their respective Kingsbury parkrun bests with terrific efforts. Matt Green strode home in a wonderful 4th place overall, with recovering Rachael Browne managing the tenth female. Joanne Crow finished 7th at Barmouth in a pacy 25:46. Erica Bassford stormed to a swift 25:23 at Sutton, and Megan Griffiths finished the highest of all Badger sows at the weekend by taking second at a power-packed Evesham parkrun in 22:43.