On Sunday 22 June, Vale’s Anuradha Cooray ran in the inaugural Hackney Half Marathon which attracted almost 10,000 runners, over 9,500 of whom completed the race. Cooray ran a great race in difficult conditions to finish in 3rd place behind two Kenyan runners. He completed the race in 1:06:44, just 44 seconds behind the 2nd placed athlete.
The race, one of the 10 largest in the UK, started and finished in Hackney Marshes with the route passing the famous Hackney Empire, not to mention the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park taking in both the Stadium and Velodrome. General opinion seems to be that it was an event worth running again though water stations appear to have been a problem for some in the exceptionally hot conditions.
Anuradha will be running for Sri Lanka in the Asian Games later this year in Korea, and is hoping that he will also get an opportunity to participate in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next month. He recently competed in the Copenhagen Half Marathon which incorporated the IAAF World Championships where he had a fantastic race running a new personal best time of 1:05:20.