Gladys battles to Marathon PB in Houston
North Belfast's Gladys Ganiel battled her way to a personal best time when she recorded 2hrs 40 mins 56 secs to finish 8th in the Houston Marathon behind winner Alemitu Abera of Ethiopia who took the tape in 2.23.14.
Ganiel's time beats her previous best by 26 secs set in London last April. However the 34 year old will be disappointed that she did not get closer to the Olympic "A" qualification time of 2.37 which is necessary to gain Irish selection for this summer's Olympics.
Gladys was in fact on schedule to achieve this time at the halfway mark when she was in 6th place some 45 secs behind Irish teammate Ava Hutchinson. However the gap between the two opened considerably over the last 6 miles where Hutchinson was having the race of her life.
At the finish the Aldershot AC woman took the bronze medal in an Olympic "A" time of 2.35.33 which was a massive PB by over 7 mins. Ava now joins Dublin Marathon winner Linda Byrne as potentials for the London Olympics.
Gladys said:
"I went out at 5.56-5.58 pace, as I wanted, and ran that through 17-18 miles. Miles 9-17 I was on my own running that pace, and it was slightly disappointing to be isolated, but the course itself was very good and the weather was perfect.
I started slipping between 17-18 miles and people started to catch me, and I just was slowing the rest of the way in. I am glad I held on for a personal best although it would of course have been nice to get the A standard. Ava Hutchinson had an inspiring run and it's great to see two Irish girls now with the A standard.
I'm certainly glad I made the trip and gave myself a chance on such a good course and in good conditions. Given that my target marathon pace is actually not that much faster than I have been racing my half marathons in (5.58 vs. 5.45), I probably just need to get a bit faster and hopefully the training I do between now and then can help me achieve that".
She will now target London in 14 weeks in the hope of getting the time.
Thomas Frazer (St. Malachy's) was competing in the Half Marathon in Houston ran 66.37 for ninth.
Well done to Gladys from all the wider Athletics community in NI!
