Marlovians do well in marathon

9:44am Friday 27th April 2001

MARLOW marathon runners, from Olympic champions to pen pushing business men, took to the streets of London on Sunday.

Olympic rower Sir Steven Redgrave may have been the most high profile Marlovian taking part in the 21st Flora London Marathon but he certainly wasn't the fastest, taking 4hrs 55mins to complete the course just a second quicker than his wife Lady Ann.

The couple's progress was hampered by media interviews and well-wishers shaking Sir Steven's hand.

Marlow's fastest runner in the race was Martin Leake, of Barnards Hill, who completed the 26.2 mile race in 3hrs 16 mins, finishing in the top nine per cent of the 30,000 entrants.

Mr Leake is a member of the Marlow Striders and was joined by 12 other group members.

Alice Banks, chairman of the runners, who was a warden on the day, said: "It went very well. We did have 13 runners but one of them had just come back from India and was suffering from Delhi belly.

"I have spoken to all of the runners who took part and they all enjoyed it."

Marlow Marathon runners Mark Frankish and Brian Bower also competed the course, running on behalf of their company Timex in Middlesex.

Mr Bower completed the run in 3hrs 24mins, coming in at 3,065 and Mr Frankish finished in 4hrs, coming in at number 8,954.

Sir Steven plays a starring role

SIR Steven Redgrave took to the streets of the capital when he joined 30,000 runners in the Flora London Marathon.

The Marlow Bottom man attracted huge media attention as he made his way round the 26.2-mile course with wife Ann.

Finishing in a less than Olympic time of four hours 56 minutes, the five times Olympic gold winner shook hundreds of hands and talked into countless microphones as he made his way across the course.

Sir Steven, who commented in the Free Press last week that his training programme had left a little to be desired, finished one second ahead of his wife. Sir Steven was given the unique honour of wearing the number one shirt on the day a shirt usually reserved for last year's winner.