Distance Running News, 30 April - 6 May 2019

07 May 2019

Cheltenham Harriers dominated the inaugural Pomphrey 5k in Bristol as the club filled three of the top four places. Phil Beastall took control of the midweek race in the opening mile, before crossing the line in an impressive time of 15:01 for a nine second winning margin over Bristol’s Jack Bancroft. Isolated throughout the race, Ben Price followed in 15:24 to complete the top three. The battle for fourth was a more intriguing affair with Doug Wight setting a new personal best of 15:48 as he finished three seconds clear of Bristol’s Dave Awde.

There was also a PB and first sub 17 clocking for Alex Lindfield who impressed with 16:44 in twelfth as he finished six seconds clear of teammate Chris Roxburgh. Mark James then finished as first veteran in 17:11 before Dan Schofield completed the Harriers squad in 17:27.

The weekend also brought success over the same distance at the Cardiff 5k as Charlie Jones set a PB of 15:34 for 28th place in a high quality field before Alex Lindfield again lowered his PB with a pleasing 16:29. Also racing in Wales was Dan Minors who contested the Newport Marathon. Pacing himself well and  passing through halfway in 1:26:12, the marathon debutant crossed the line in a very satisfying 2:53:44 to finish as third V45 runner. Also lining up for the 26.2 mile distance for the first time was wheelchair athlete Les Hampton who impressed with 3:01:59. In the accompanying 10k event Jon Barnes recorded 34:34 for nineteenth place.

On the track, the club hosted the Brewer Games at the Prince of Wales Stadium and provided the first four runners home in the 3000m as Dan Owen (8:43.4) took the win from Richard de-Camps (8:54.3), Joe Turner (8:59.6) and Jamie Harper (9:23.6).

In the following B race Martin Soakell set a PB of 10:32.3 for second place to finish clear of Clark Lawson (10:39.2) whilst LV60 athlete Kathryn Moreton (12:58.5) continued her injury comeback. The 1500m saw a win for Turner (4:21.9) whilst Roger Mullins (4:37.1), Dan Schofield (4:43.1), Oscar Godden (4:43.8) and Matt Evans (4:49.6) were also in action. Kaitlyn Sheppard was the first lady home with a PB of 4:45.2 just two days after lowering her 3000m PB to 10:10.69 at the BMC event at Millfield School. Also on the track Will New set a 10,000m track PB of 32:32.97 in New Hampshire whilst Liam Roarty posted a 3000m time of 9:02.86 for tenth place at the Irish Milers Club race in Dublin. Chris Booth made his 1500m debut at the Watford Open where he took the win in the E race in 4:20.29.

Weekend parkruns saw Tara Grosvenor (18:56) first lady home at the Gloucester City event, a position matched by Caroline Cotterell (22:19) in Cirencester and Millie Foster (22:58) at the Kingsway parkrun in Gloucester whilst Ellis Woolley (22:12) was the sixth lady across the line at the Fire Service College event in Moreton-in-Marsh. Eliot Taylor (17:25) placed second in Hereford, Henry James (17:41) finished fourth in Hastings, Matt Evans (19:08) claimed tenth at the Kesgrave parkrun in Ipswich whilst in Cheltenham James Bingham (17:48) finished fourth and Matt Lambourne (19:33) also had a run out.