Results round-up - June
With thanks to David Chalfen for writing this up, here's just some of the highlights from the few weeks. Well done to everyone involved.
Leading results have been mainly focussed on the lower end of the longer distances in recent weeks.
No apologies for highlighting the England National 10,000m championships hosted on 7 June at Walthamstow’s Fast Friday hosted by Orion Harriers. Standout result was Will Green (V40), with 31.05 and 18th place, chased home by Jonathan Poole, 21st in 31.30, both relishing the chance to race at this level on the track. Also in the B race Ben Tolputt shaved his PB down to 33.02 just shy of the elusive sub 33.
It’s the middle of the traditional track season but it’s also not 1978 so there are various Serpie parkrun triumphs dotted around. Women first and June 1 provided wins for Kate Horsman 19.48 at Nonsuch, Natalia Eddy 19.57 at Highbury Fields and Victoria Brown 20.57 at Penrise, though fastest on the day was Ahlem Ben Gueblia 19.27 for 2nd at Fulham Palace. Male winners were Tony Payne, 15.41 in Edinburgh; Ben Tolputt 16.35 at Burgess Park and Chris Oddy 15.53 at Fountain Abbey, the latter a contingency after discovering that you can’t turn up for the Northern area Track and Field 5000m Championships and just enter on the day…
An ‘in house’ highlight was that Kevin Murray, whose swift pace I had incorrectly assumed to be at the youthful end of the V55s, notched up a tremendously swift 26.12 to set the V60 course record at the Serpies 7k handicap.
Andy Greenleaf raced well at the Worthing 10k to place 3rd in 31.19. While at the Sri Chinmoy 5k on 3rd June Serpentine were led by Kit Grierson 15:50, who won the race, followed at the sharper end by Ryan McCrickard 16:37, Martin Richardson 16:41 and Tim Powell 16:52.
Parkruns on 15 June were headed by Andy Greenleaf’s 15.52 at Wimbledon, Joost Vogel 16.51 at the tough Finsbury Park, Ben Tolputt 16.49 at Burgess Park, and in one of those strange coincidences of time and motion Hugh Torry and Vic Crawford both pitched up at Vogrie (yes, the one in Midlothian south of Edinburgh) and won in 17.32 and 19.44 respectively. Andy G doubled up by winning the Alresford 10k the following day, his 32.00 giving him over 2 ½ mins margin of victory.
Belatedly worth reporting that on 28 April in London Jonathan Poole clocked 1.46.30 through 20 miles, a PB and third fastest Serpie all time including marathon en routes. Readers still with this will spot it was meant to be a milestone that officially but problematically had 6.2 miles to complete but nevertheless very swift stuff.
The best long distance track running you can see in London this year , or indeed in Europe, will be the Highgate 10,000s on July 6th at Parliament Hill. Apparently the slowest male entrants across 6 races, with 3 stacked women’s races too, are close to 31 minutes so roll up early to see the leading Serpies do battle at top level. The top 4 races – 2 male, 2 female - feature the European Athletic Association’s 10,000m challenge with most of the Continent’s elite signed up, and at the front end trying to qualify for the Doha World Championships in September.
David Chalfen
Tom Poynton
running@serpentine.org.uk
Submitted: 19 June 2019