Distance Running News, 6-12 May 2019

13 May 2019

Richard Dare claimed the Gloucestershire 5000m title as Cheltenham Harriers dominated the event as they filled the top five places. From the start it was the Harriers trio of Dare, Dave Aubrey and Doug Wight sharing the pace with veteran John Parker staying in close contact. Before the halfway point Dare and Wight had pulled clear as they alternated turns at the front whilst Parker in turn opened up a gap on Aubrey.

In the fourth kilometer Dare finally pulled clear before extending his lead to thirteen seconds by the finish as he stopped the clock at 15:42.9. Wight claimed silver with 15:55.6 before Parker made a welcome return to race action with 16:21.9 in third place. Alex Lindfield ran a well paced race to take fourth in a track PB of 16:31.6, with Aubrey just behind in 16:32.9. Mark James (17:02.5) kicked clear of Roger Mullins (17:07.5) as the pair took seventh and eighth respectively whilst Andrew Kaighin (17:30.7) finished ninth.

Rachel See was the sole lady in the race and stopped the clock at 19:55.4 whilst wheelchair racers Ed Grazier (15:32.6) and Les Hampton (20:02.4) also showed good form. In the 800m George Hawthorne impressed with a personal best of 2:00.5 to finish second whilst the 1500m saw Kaitlyn Sheppard (4:51.4) win the ladies race and Dan Schofield (4:44.2) finish third on the men’s race. Meanwhile In the British League fixture in Cardiff Joe Turner contested his first steeplechase of the year where he finished second in 9:33.24.

Phil Beastall was an emphatic winner of the Tewkesbury Half Marathon as he dominated the race from start to finish. Passing through six miles in 31:20 the Cheltenham athlete was already over two minutes clear of the field before he extended his lead in the second half of the race. Stopping the clock in a new course record and personal best time of 69:23, Beastall finished over five minutes ahead of Clevedon’s Luke Murray. Matt Evans (87:46) and Steve Linton (87:49) finished within three seconds of each other before Kayla Gorton (1:45:08) enjoyed her Harriers debut and Leah Hopton (1:51:30) crossed the line.

There was a win for Charlie Jones at the Hereford 10k where he clocked a time of 33:45 for a twelve second winning margin over Basingstoke’s Stephen Reid. In the accompanying half marathon Jon Barnes finished fourth in 75:21. Another Harriers victory came from Chris Booth at the Pednor 5 in Buckinghamshire where he completed the undulating course in 26:56. Dan Thomas ran well for eighth place at the Marlow 5 mile road race where he recorded a time of 26:46 whilst Jonathan Floyd set a PB of 39:00 at the Oxford Town and Gown 10k. The Harriers provided the first man and first lady at the Cheltenham parkrun where Alex Lee (16:37) and Hannah D’Ambrosio (21:05) were in action. Georgia Palmer (21:20) quickly followed as second lady, a position matched by Amber Watson (20:30) at the Worcester Pitchcroft parkrun where Matt Lambourne (18:21) and Gareth Edwards(18:52) finished seventh and tenth respectively.