Six of the Middle Distance squad were rewarded with new lifetime bests in the BMC PB classic held on a damp, chilly & breezy Milton Keynes on Saturday evening.
Result of the evening in which 12 of the squad competed in was Abigail Colemen who finally broke the magical 5:00 minute barrier for 1500m in a remarkably comfortable looking race in which she came third with 4:57.63. just behind local rival Ellie Welch. Abz capitalised on the BMC pacemaker's perfectly paced opening two laps to complete the final 700m looking strong, and will look to move towards the 4:50 mark in the next few weeks. Just missing out on the Men's equivalent 800m "Sub 2" was Matthew Stewart who despite setting his 4th PB of the season was still left frustratingly close to his target with 2:00.67 in a tough and bruising race in which he was chopped on a few occasions, but it is surely just a matter of time before he completes the task?
Josh Cara, opting to stick with a highly challenging 1500m race against U20/U17 opposition, just about held his own, and despite coming last he was drawn to a excellent new PB of 4:23.72, ever closer to the English Qualifying time of 4:22, and moved into the top 15 in the UK for his age group. Fellow 1500m specialist Jack Hope also sliced 3 seconds from his PB with an excellently judged and powerful finish to record 4:32.3 in his race and move into the UK top 50. Also capitalising on her UK top 50 ranking and setting a marginal new 1500m PB of 5:20.94 was Tabatha Walford who despite tiring towards the end of the race after settling in behind the pacemaker intent on setting a suicidal 200/ 400m split, held on to narrowly defeat local rival Alison Curtis. Gemma Vaughan also ran in the same race to narrowly pip Tabs on the line to set a new SB 5:20.32, and Lauren Mehmet running well in an isolated race for 5:43.2
Josh Coles making his debut in the 1500m Steeplechase, and still honing his technique for efficient hurdling set an excellent time of 4:42.83 and move to 11th in the UK, and will look to reach the English Schools qualification time of 4:36 if a race can be found where the water jump is not affected by the hose pipe ban!
A contingent of 800m runners were also in action, with Ethan Mehmet suffering from an a fast opening lap setting 2:25.79, Jess Gordon proving to herself that her recent PB was not a fluke running close to her best with 2:26.7, and Fran Ashworth still to hit top form in 2012 setting 2:23.48 to just hold off local rival Helena Keenan.
Well Done to all the Athletes who ran.