The Grand Hotel Mini Mile Races 2012
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It has been a remarkable year for the Grand Hotel Mini-Mile. Three years ago just over 400 Brighton & Hove schoolchildren made their way to the Peace Statue near Hove Lawns to race the final mile of the marathon. This year there was a massive four-fold increase in numbers as over 1700 charged down Madeira Drive on a bright, sunny morning.
Apart from the word spreading, one of the reasons for the increase in popularity was that for the first time since the Brighton Marathon started in 2010, two Mini-Mile warm-up races were staged in the month of February to give children the feel for the distance and raise the event’s profile.
But some children evidently needed no persuading. The winner of the senior boy’s race, Will Durkin of Phoenix Harriers, has competed in all three Mini-Miles. After third in last year’s race and fourth in year one, he finally broke through to take the coveted title, succeeding the outstanding double winner from 2010-2011, Charlie Grice, who this year acted as celebrity starter now that he is over age. Having watched Grice’s back disappearing ahead of him for two years running, Durkin was determined not only to win but to erase Grice’s name from the record books, but on a blustery morning it was not to be as he fell eight seconds short of the 4 minutes 18 seconds benchmark that Grice set last year. In compensation, at 4 minutes 25 seconds Durkin was still eight seconds faster than his time last year. But racing virtually on his own, he had little to fight against apart from the clock and a swirling wind.
That was certainly not the case in the senior women’s race where the title was only decided in the final metres when Lewes’s Maddy Smith fought tooth and nail with Lauren Bourne of Worthing College. Both were given a time of 5 minutes 38 seconds, with Smith forcing her torso across the line first in an exciting tussle. Smith and Bourne are old adversaries from local meetings and their rivalry is sure to continue, but not in the Mini-Mile since both will be too old for 2013. For Smith, victory represented a promotion since she was runner-up in 2011.
Sam Kitchen of Phoenix and Peacehaven Community school repeated his win of last year in the U15, but with 4:47 he was 22 seconds faster. Kitchen will be eligible for another three years, and it will be interesting to see how he develops and whether he will be the man to ultimately eclipse Grice’s record.
Dorothy Stringer’s Nancy Jones repeated last year’s second place in the girls U13, beaten this time by Amber Anning of Brighton and Hove school. Anning is one to watch out for in future years. She successively moved up a category since she claimed the U11 Overall last year.
Richard Nerurkar is the elite coordinator for Grounded Events, and a former World Cup marathon winner and Olympian. Some of his talent appears to have rubbed off on his daughter, Almi, who won her U13 race in 5:54 and was third fastest overall.
The overall winner of the U11 race was Aaron Alexander of East Preston Junior school who clocked 5min55sec, but not far behind was Ben Walters of Ringmer Primary who won his race in 5min58sec to improve on his third place overall last year.
