Distance Running News, 30 May - 4 June

05 June 2017

There were race wins for Richard de-Camps and Alex Bampton as Cheltenham Harriers contested their Midland League Division 2 fixture at Wolverhampton. In the 1500m de-Camps was content to track the early leader Casey Maddock of Stoke as the pair instantly pulled clear of the field with a 64 second opening lap. Little then changed over the next 700m with de-Camps remaining on the Maddock’s shoulder as they reached the bell in 3:02. With just over 300m remaining Maddock kicked for home and opened up a five metre gap, but significantly this didn’t grow any further with the Cheltenham athlete starting to close the deficit as they hit the 200m mark. Judging his race perfectly de-Camps went past his opponent with about 80m remaining to claim the win by nine tenths of a second in 4:02.4. Further success in the race came with Jacob Pickering placing fourth overall to finish as second B runner in a new personal best of 4:13.9. In the 3000m Bampton hit the front after the opening lap and soon established a gap over the rest of the field as he went through the opening kilometre in around three minutes. Whilst Leamington’s Paul Andrew reduced the gap slightly in the second half of the race, Bampton was never troubled and took a comfortable victory in 9:04.8 with a five second winning margin. Running as a non-scoring guest athlete Liam Roarty took third in a new PB of 9:13.5 before Will New took the B string win in 9:19.7 in fifth place overall. Also racing as guests were Dan Thomas who crossed the line in 9:33.1 and Alex Lindfield who set a PB of 9:42.5. The ladies 3000m also brought good points with new signing Naomi Eaton taking third place in 10:55.5 to finish as second A runner and Fee Maycock placing fifth overall and second B runner in 11:17.0. Maycock also contested the 1500m where she was fourth B runner in 5:23.8 as she finished just behind Ella Burfitt who was the fifth A runner in 5:21.9. In the 800m races the Emma Quekett ran 2:29.9 PB for fifth in the A race and Agata Giles (2:50.6) was the fifth in the B race. Jacob Pickering (2:04.4) was fifth in the men’s 800m A race and John Merrett (2:03.7) took third in the B race. Matt Evans (12:14.6) and Steve Maguire (12:21.1) scored valuable points in the 3000m steeplechase as they finished fifth A and third B runners respectively.

Earlier in the week at the Watford Open Meeting Dan Owen was in good form as he finished twelfth in the 3000m in 8:31.04 whilst George Hawthorne gained the same position in the B race in a PB of 9:24.50. Oliver Powell recorded a time of 4:24.43 in the 1500m E race and Alex Lindfield set a PB of 4:26.99 in the F race. Three days later Owen followed up his performance with a win in the 2000m steeplechase in 5:53.25 at the BMC Academy event in Milton Keynes where Fraser Willmore also impressed with a victory in the 3000m B race in an excellent PB of 8:53.16.

Away from the track Tommaso Migliuolo enjoyed a win as the Harriers hosted the Cleeve Cloud Cuckoo multi-terrain 5 mile race over a challenging course on Cleeve Hill. Ian Porter (CLC) led the race up the opening climb before Migliuolo took the lead which he held to the finish to beat Porter by six seconds. With James Wilkinson seventh and Andrew Kaighin seventeenth the club took the team win whilst Dave Hemmings (28th), Paul Barnes (56th) and first V70 runner Martin Ford (66th) also enjoyed a run out in the 167 strong field. The previous evening at the Aztec West 5k in Bristol Mark James finished as first veteran in 16:22 for eighth place overall. Roger Mullins recorded 17:17 before Martin Soakell set a PB of 18:54 and Fee Maycock won her FV45 category with a time of 19:31. Sunday’s Fairford 10K saw Shona Crombie-Hicks finish as second lady behind Victoria Baker (Forest of Dean) as she was first veteran home in 40:21. Mark James completed the testing course in 35:49 as second veteran in seventh overall before Paul Barnes stopped the clock at 42:18 and Martin Ford’s 43:06 saw him beat all the V60 and V65 runners. There were parkrun wins for Phil Wylie (15:35) at Exeter Riverside, for Andy Gardiner (17:30) at the Amager Strandpark event in Copenhagen and for Phil Beastall (15:48) at Cheltenham where Marcus England (17:25) took second, James Wilkinson (18:33) finished fourth and Simon Critchley (18:51) placed eighth. Liam Roarty (18:55) finished third at the Gloucester North event whilst Rachel See (21:35) was the fourth lady at Swindon.