There was another strong effort from the Bicester AC team at the recently held 3rd round of the summer long Motavation road race series which was held at Coombe. This race was transferred over from the previous week as organizers had deemed the weather on its original date too hot. Fortunately conditions were much more favourable and 332 runners toed the starting line for the 3.85 mile circuit. This race has what is a sting in the tail with a very steep hill to climb towards the closing stages. Bicester AC are performing strongly this season and came into the race in 3rd place in the short (a reduced number to count as scoring runners) team standings. They also had two runners placed in the top 3 in the under 19 men’s category standings following the first two rounds.
Bicester’s Joshua Moran came into this race in equal first in the under 19 men’s standing having ran an excellent 4th in round 2. Moran ran another quite superb race finishing 3rd and clocking a superb 20mins 22secs. Bicester AC had not had a runner in the top ten finishers in this series for several years but Moran has now managed back to back top ten finishes. Moran was also the leading the under 19 men’s finisher and will head the under 19 men’s standings in his own right after three rounds. Moran’s time was 1min 39secs faster than his previous best on this course.
Tom Court followed up his promising effort in round 1 with another very strong run as he placed 28th with 22mins 37secs in what was only his 2nd Motavation race. Court was involved in what was a five way battle for the under 19 men’s runner up spot which also involved Bicester’s Alex Collins. In the event Courts was 4th under 19 finisher just 9 secs away from the runner up spot. Alex Collins was next in for Bicester placing 32nd with a 23mins 05secs clocking and was 6th under 19 men’s finisher.
George Hart was Bicester’s other placer in the top 100 in 60th. His time of 24mins 13secs was only marginally slower than his 2025 effort. Max Finnegan ran well for 110th which was his highest placing in this year’s series (26mins 46secs).
Robert Parsons continues to perform well in what is his first Motavation series and he achieved his best placing so far in 224th (31mins 58secs). There was closely fought contest between Bicester’s other two finishers with Emily Benfield coming out on top in placing 282nd (36mins 07secs) with Paul Groves placing 284th (36mins 24secs).