On Saturday 14th February 2015, Osterley Park was host to trials to select the team to represent the London Borough of Hounslow at the 2015 Virgin Money Giving London Mini Marathon on Sunday 26th April. For the first time the Hounslow Mini Marathon teamed up with parkrun, who host free 5km time trials across the country on a weekly basis.
Over 80 boys and girls aged 11-17years old were aiming to finish in the top 7 of their age categories to secure a place on Team Hounslow. Successful competitors will represent the borough and race over the last 5km of the actual London Marathon course, finishing just minutes of the elite athletes.
The top time of the day was achieved by Mohamed Nagi (U17 boys) who ran an impressive time of 18.46mins. The top female performance was achieved by Charlotte Buckley (U13 girls) in 20.58mins.
Rebecca Townsend, Community Sports Development Officer said of the trials: “There was strong competition to represent the borough in this year’s prestigious event. Congratulations to all of those who took part and thank you to all of the volunteers at Osterley parkrun who made this event successful”.
Councillor Sachin Gupta, Hounslow Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Leisure, said: “The Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon has unearthed a number of British athletics stars including, Scott Overall, David Weir, Shelly Woods and Mo Farah, who represented the London Borough of Hounslow, so it’s a very prestigious event. It’s little wonder that the competition to be in Team Hounslow this year was amongst the toughest ever. Congratulations are due to the organisers and to all who took part. We’ll be wishing them all the best of luck in April.”
