Distance Running News
23 July 2016
Dan Owen continued his good recent form over 5000m at the British Miler’s Club Grand Prix in Oxford. Arguably unfortunate to be seeded in the C race, Owen was quickly to the fore as he followed leader Belal Ahmed (Wimbledon) through the opening kilometre in 2:58 and the 2km mark in 5:58 as the race stayed on schedule for a sub fifteen clocking. On a hot afternoon where the athletes were unusually taking on water mid race, Owen took the lead as the front three passed 3000m in 8:59, but the pace dropped slightly despite the Midland bronze medallist opening up lead by the time he’d reached 4k in 12:03. Over the last two laps Bideford’s Mark Jenkin closed the gap to Owen and overtook him in the final few yards to deny the Cheltenham athlete victory by 0.31 seconds. Owen’s time of 15:06.65 was his second quickest over the distance and just 6.67 seconds outside his PB. In the master’s mile at the same meeting Darren Jordan placed third in an impressive 4:42.80.
Megg Brinley produced an impressive personal best performance to finish as the fastest lady over 3000m at the second Cheltenham Midsummer Open Meeting. With the events A race having an entirely male field, the fastest women were seeded in the B race alongside similar standard men. Competing in her first mixed track race, 16 year old Brinley ran a consistently paced race to place sixth overall in 10:35.5. This lowered her PB by four seconds as she finished over half a minute quicker than the next female athlete. Fellow Harrier Matthew Dwerryhouse took the race win in 10:17.6 whilst either side of Brinley were Alex Clements and Miguel Mundinano who recorded times of 10:32.8 and 10:49.9 respectively. In the A race Anthony Bailey finished second in 9:21.2 and fellow veteran Marc Fallows placed third in 9:25.4 as Maldwyn’s Joseph Critchley took the honours in 9:03.2. Mike Gray ran well for seventh place with a 9:38.2 PB before Dave Aubrey (9:44.6) finished ninth and Roger Mullins (9:46.9) claimed eleventh place. The sole Harrier in the C race was Martin Ford who finished fifth in 11:44.7, a time that places the 72 year old at the top of the national vet 70 rankings. In the 800m A race Jacob Pickering ran well for third place in 2:02.3, just 0.1 seconds outside his PB, whilst veteran Darren Jordan recorded 2:08.1. Iain Devlin won the B race in 2:10.1 and Isabel Ovens took victory in the E race in a season’s best of 2:34.0.
Dan Owen finished second in the 1500m B race in 3:59.78 at the BMC event in Manchester whilst on the road Phil Wylie finished third in the Exeter 10k in 31:33. Weekend parkruns saw Ben Price (16:14) and Dave Tomlin (17:07) take first and second places at the Cheltenham event where Andy Gore (18:23) took fourth and Steve Hall recorded 19:28. Gavin McCaugherty meanwhile won the Wyre Forest event in 17:51 to take victory at his thirteenth different parkrun venue. Phil Wylie won the Durham parkrun in 15:34, Mark James won at the Kingsway event in Gloucester with a time of 17:53 and Jon Barnes placed second at the Mile End even in London with 16:43.