Distance Running News, 21-27 May 2019
27 May 2019
Dan Owen set a new personal best and Cheltenham Harriers club record as he took victory in the 2000m steeplechase at the British Milers Club Grand Prix in Manchester. Having won his opening two races of the season, Owen confidently followed pacemaker Chris Perry from the gun as looked to attack the 5:49.1 PB that he set last summer. After just one lap, Owen and Poole’s Jamie Grose had pulled clear of the field and the pair tracked Perry closely until he stepped aside after 1200m.
The fourth lap then saw the Dave Newport coached athlete open a gap over Grose before extending this to seven seconds on the final circuit to take a well earned victory in an impressive 5:47.23, At the same meeting Dom James contested the 5000m C race where he passed through 3000m in under nine minutes before having to settle for eleventh place in a new track personal best of 15:16.42. Earlier in the week Richard de-Camps raced in the BMC regional event in Tipton where he finished seventh in the 3000m A race in a time of 8:47.73.
On the roads six Harriers lined up in the televised London 10000 road race which saw Mo Farah win the British 10k road race Championship as thousands of runners raced through the capital. Phil Beastall went through halfway in 15:02 on his way to a pleasing time of 30:32 as he came home in 34th place in his first 10k for sixteen months.
Chris Booth then took sixteen seconds off his PB for an impressive 33:02, with Dan Thomas not far behind in 33:18 before Steve Linton (37:02), Matt Lambourne (39:05) and Clark Lawson (39:12) completed the Cheltenham contingent.
In the previous day’s Westminster Mile series Lambourne set a personal best of 5:03 whilst in the Masters races V60 runner Nick Holliday recorded 5:33, LV45 athlete Caroline Cotterell posted 5:59 and LV60 runner Kathryn Morton stopped the clock at 6:41.
In Herefordshire there was a win for Jon Barnes in the Crocodile 8 mile mult-terrain race as he finished almost two and half minutes clear of Hereford’s Matt James. ames Bingham contested the Edinburgh Half Marathon where he recorded a time of 76:42 for 29th place whilst Dave Tomlin finished fourth at the Dymcok Half Marathon. At the Weston Prom 5 mile road race Dan Schofield finished twelfth in 30:09 whilst Melanie Mosi crossed the line in 39:08.
The weekend’s parkruns saw Beth Hawling (18:45) finish as first lady and seventh overall at the Hampstead Heath event whilst Doug Wight (17:02) finished second in Cheltenham where Henry James (18:42) placed eighth. There was also a second place for Mark James (17:38) at Worcester Pitchcroft whilst Dave Tomlin (19:44) finished third at the notoriously challenging Churchfields Farm event in Droitwich, Further South, Gareth Edwards (18:12) took fifth position in Winchester whilst Georgia Palmer (22:24) was the seventh lady home in Southsea.