My highlight of Saturday’s (February 10) Murray Lambden Meeting at the NSC was an outstanding women’s race between Rachael Franklin and Gemma Astin in the 5k run.
Their athletics careers have run alongside each other since they were very young, as they were in the same year at school and were always in the same age group coming up through the ranks in athletics.
They must have raced each other a hundred times or more up to and including the U20 age group on road, track and cross-country.
Murray Lambden Meeting
With Gemma taking an extended break from racing for about ten years (but remaining super-fit), the last time she and Rachael went head-to-head in a race prior to yesterday was probably in 2012.
The resulting contest yesterday was absolutely superb to witness, with Gemma making a strong break away in the knowledge that Rachael has real finishing speed, and Rachael then catching and passing her in the last couple of hundred metres.
To see that sort of quality from two local athletes in a local race was fantastic.
Athletics
But what was more important than who won the race was the fact that two of the best athletes ever to grace the sport on the Isle of Man were prepared to put themselves on the line and compete against each other in a local race.
It was superb to see. Steve Partington’s two photos sum up what athletics is all about – giving everything you have during the race and then remaining friends afterwards!
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