Our Marathon History - Mid 90s
Only 19 days to go!
Our review of the Wilmslow Half Marathon continues into the Mid 90s.
The 10th annual race was held on March 27th 1994. It was sponsored by Hopewiser, a local company who were the first company to identify the potential of Addressing Solutions allied to Postal Address Data. That month the Church of England ordained its first women priests, Angela Berners-Wilson being the first.
The 1994 race winners were Andrew Green [1:04:39] with a winning margin of 2 minutes; and Suzanne Rigg [1:14:48] in 40th place, also with a winning margin of 2 minutes. Suzanne had returned to Wilmslow - after her win in 1992 - to be crowned Champion lady again. Her time was 7 minutes faster than the 93 ladies winning time and a minute slower than her 92 winning time. Later that year Suzanne came 4th in the Commonwealth Games 10k in Victoria.
The number of runners was slightly down that year at 1572. Warrington AC took the men’s team prize comfortably from Stockport. Mid Cheshire AC were the Ladies Team winners.
In 1995 the race was sponsored again by Hopewiser and held on the 19th of March. That month Damon Hill was banned from driving for seven days after admitting that he drove at 165 mph on the M40 motorway. The Half Marathon runners were not that fast.
Andrew Green returned to win again, only 12 seconds faster than in 94, and with a smaller winning margin - this year 7 seconds. Suzanne did not return to defend her title; and Carol Holmes was crowned Champion with a time of [1:16:58] just over 80 seconds ahead of the second lady runner. The number of finishers had risen slightly to 1651.
The Men’s team was a battle of the Harriers - Stockport were pushed into second place again – this time by Blackburn. Wilmslow was 9th. There were 40 teams. The ladies Team title was taken by Macclesfield. Wilmslow were 14th out of 26.
The next year - 1996 - the race was held on the 31st of March.
Andrew didn’t return to defend his title that year. The winner was Eamon Martin in a time of 1:4:32 by a margin of 90 seconds. Martin had pedigree: Martin he is the most recent British male winner of the London Marathon, where he recorded a time of 2:10:50, winning the 1993 race in a sprint finish against the Mexican athlete Isidro Rico. The race was Martin's début marathon and he went on to win the Chicago Marathon in 1995 (2:11:18].
Suzanne returned again after another year’s absence and won for the 3rd time in 5 years. Her time of 1:12:32 was a course record for Ladies. The number of runners had swelled to 1957.
A strong Basildon AC team took the men’s Team title that had 26 teams competing. Altrincham stormed home to take the Ladies Team title.
