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STUNNING
PERFORMANCE BY JESS AS A RECORD NUMBER OF MANX ATHLETES
COMPLETE MARATHON
Jess Draskau-Petersson
ran a terrific personal best time of 2.46.10 on
Sunday to improve her Dublin time by 7 minutes.
Paul Curphey – fastest local man
for the 6th time but slower than Jess. For
the fifth time he reversed the positions in the
20 mile race to achieve this.
Peter Hughes (blue vest) ran a
determined race to beat 3 hours yet again.
Jess
Draskau-Petersson in the warm up area for the British
Championship race on Sunday.
Jess’s
time on Sunday has been bettered by only two Manx
born or Manx based athletes. Margaret Lockley
and Brenda Walker were both British internationals
of the highest standard and are listed as the 40th
and 70th best British marathon runners of all time.
The following is an extract Martin Rix’s website
gbrathletics.com
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Name
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Date of birth
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Time
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Position
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Date
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Margaret Lockley
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15.05.47
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2:36:06
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8
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13 May 1984
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Brenda Walker
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24.08.56
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2:39:36
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4
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18 Apr 1993
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I was
concerned before the race that a public
prediction of 2 hours 47 minutes would
put Jess under unnecessary pressure
based on her half marathon times. I’ve
seen so many good athletes burdened
by hefty expectations only for them
be classed as "disappointing"
when they fail to meet the expectation
that someone else has set for them.
But
Jess was always confident of her own
ability and ran a fantastic race on
Sunday. She was in difficult circumstances
being in the elite field running in
front of millions of people. She was
fairly isolated midway between
Paula Radcliffe’s world record run and
the bulk of the field who were grouped
together. She proved me hopelessly
wrong by setting a time which was virtually
the same pace as her recent half marathon
and faster than a 20 mile outing. Her
perception that her talent was not recognised
by me was a motivating factor to
her throughout.
The
qualifying time for the 2002 Commonwealth
Games was 2 hours and 42 minutes and
I’m sure that a similar target for the
2006 games in Adelaide will be
one of the next objectives for the 25
year old Jess.
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