On a pleasantly warm evening but with a stronger breeze than hopped for, there were some outstanding performances from the KTH Middle distance squad, with no less than 9 PB's, 2 new Club Records, and 2 English schools qualification times secured at the BMC PB classic at Milton Keynes. The BMC (British Milers Club) provides a unique opportunity for athletes to have pacemakers to ensure fast times are achieved.
Pride of place goes to Jack Hope & Lewis Hayes who both broke Club records for their events. Jack broke a 27 year old record for the 1500m steeplechase in his first race over the correct distance for his AG looked superb, and this performance shows he has a chance to really make a name for himself in this event. Jack quickly got into his stride from the start and settled in 3/4th place battling with Dan Wilde from Taunton, this continued until the bell lap when Dan fell spectacularly at the final water jump after narrowly edging ahead of Jack who had taken the initiative on at the bell, Jack cleared the water jump without any mistakes and powered towards a superb 3rd place despite a late attempt from his competitor to haul him in. Jack finished behind Taunton's Archie Walton & Yeovil's Sam Sommerville, with all three now leading the U17 UK national rankings, and Jack has also secured the all-important English Schools qualification time by more than 4 seconds and must feel reasonably confident of being selected?
Also reasonably confident of Selection for ES following another fabulous run is U20 Lewis Hayes who broke his own club record for the 3rd consecutive time this season with another superb win to take the BMC A race with 1:53.3. Lewis faced his most challenging race of his short career when he found himself some way off the lead in 5th place following a sudden surge at the 200m mark after a cautious start, showing great maturity and not panicking, Lewis slowly made his way back into contention on the back straight on the bell lap and positioned himself on the shoulder of the leading pack ready to unleash his trademark finish, which he promptly delivered and surged into the lead on the home straight ahead of Walton's Hugo Flemming. Lewis now drops down in distance to the 400m in his next race to test his speed endurance!
Also in action in the woman's B 800m was Fran Ashworth who had another frustrating night in just missing out on the ES qualification mark, but ran well enough to suggest it's within her reach in the next few weeks. Emily Williams ran a marginal PB to record a time of 2:24.41 in her woman's E race, and again looks capable of going quicker in the next few weeks, and the steadily improving George Glinski also ran well to reduce his PB by 3 seconds, in recording a fine 2:08.98 in the men's 800 F race.
In the 3000m sole representation was with Josh Cara who ran well to reduce his PB by over 30 seconds to finish a fine 5th in the men's A race with 9:14.98, but was still slightly off his best and was frustrated to not secure the 8:58 ES qualification mark, Josh has another chance at the Mason Trophy in 2 weeks’ time and may well enjoy a later season flourish due to delays in getting the track season underway.
In the 1500m races the performance of the night must go to U13 Henri Codling who declared prior to the race that he would struggle to break 5 minutes, in his first 1500m of the season Henri ran a superbly paced race to smash his PB by an incredible 50 seconds to record a time of 4:50.11 to move just outside the UK top 20, and admit he is now keen to run more 1500's particularly as he now less than 2 seconds from the 1979 club record!
Also on steady improvement curves are Jess Gordon and Claudia Nevett who both again set impressive PB's, Jess reduced her 3 day old PB by a further second despite slightly over cooking her first lap, and again finished strongly to finish in 5th place in the woman's A 1500 with 4:45.8, but she is still slightly shy of the ES qualification mark, and will look to try and reach the standard in the next 2 weeks. Claudi Nevett was in action in the woman's B race and also ran well to finish in 5th place and reduce her PB by over 2 seconds, and goes into County schools looking for a chance to reduce her time still further and achieve a sub 4:50 clocking. Chloe Hearne also ran well to reduce her PB with 5:32.56 for 8th place in the woman’s E race, and Abby Coleman was again frustrated with a 5:11 clocking but now looks to drop her distance to 800 in her next race to see if this suits her better?
All in All a fantastic evenings work, and the BMC meeting has once again provided great competition for the squad to run quick times.
Good luck to all the athletes over the next 2 weeks looking for ES qualification times.