Distance Running News, 17-19 August

20 August 2017

There were impressive personal best performances for Phil Beastall and Dan Owen at the final British Milers Club Grand Prix of the season at Stretford. Contesting the 10,000m A race that also incorporated the England Championships, Beastall was looking to better his road 10k personal best of 30:43 that he set in March. With a fast early pace he was content to sit towards the back in the opening stages with a 3:02 opening kilometre. With further consistent thousand metre splits of 3:01 and 3:02 the Gloucestershire cross country champion reached the 3000m mark in 9:05. He then moved through the twenty-three strong field with 3:03 and 3:02 splits to reach the halfway mark in 15:10. The pattern of the race then continued as many of those ahead started to slow as Beastall put in splits of 3:01 and 3:03. A quicker eighth kilometre of 3:00 gained the Harrier further places before a 3:03 penultimate split left him at 27:17 with just two and half laps of the track remaining. Picking up his pace after the bell allowed Beastall to record his fastest kilometre of the race with a 2:55 split to stop the clock at 30:12.24. Not only was this a huge PB, but it also earned the Cheltenham athlete ninth place in the race and seventh in the England Championship which saw Aldershot’s Chris Thompson take the win in 28:40.40.

Earlier in the evening Dan Owen lined up in the 3000m A race in fine form having ran 8:31.34 in a tactical race at the Midland Championship the previous weekend. Therefore, his three year old personal best of 8:26.63 was clearly within Owen’s sights as the race was to be paced at a much quicker pace than this. The Midland Champion wisely went straight to the back of the sixteen man field with a 2:48 opening kilometre and moved up a single place with 2:49 for the next thousand metres as the main pack pulled away. However, over the next 600m Owen started to catch the runners ahead and reached the bell in 7:20. A typically fast final lap of 62 seconds saw the Cheltenham athlete gain further places as he lowered his PB to 8:22.86 for eighth place in a race won by Preston’s Pat Dever in 8:09.09.

At the World Duathlon Championships in Canada Phil Wylie finished seventh in the elite race that comprised a 10k run, 40km bike and a final 5km run. Naomi Eaton struck gold in the shorter age group sprint duathlon with victory in the 30-34 age group. On the roads Alex Bampton continued his fine consistent form with a fine time of 15:16 for twelfth place in a high class field at the Ipswich 5k. Weekend parkruns saw Alex Lee (17:08) win the Cheltenham event in Pittville Park in which James Wilkinson (18:13) finished fourth and Henry James (19:03) ran well. Andy Gardiner (17:17) was first home at the Kingsway event in Gloucester whilst Fee Maycock (19:30) was second overall and first lady home at the Gloucester North event.