Weekend update
This weekend Marc Scott moved to the top of the runbritain ladder after an outstanding 5000m performance in the USA. Josh Kerr impressed over 1500m and there were several top drawer performances in Newport, Wales as Callum Wilkinson took a UK walking record over 10 000m and Emile Cairess ran a new PB of 28:14.30.
At the Sound Running Invite in San Juan Capistrano, California, Marc Scott (handicap -7.4) moved to third on the runbritain all-time in the 5000m rankings and top of the runbritain Ladder, as he clocked 13:05.13 just ahead of Andrew Butchart (handicap -6.8). This 5000m PB adds to recent PBs in 3000m and 10,000m.
Josh Kerr (handicap -6.6) was in winning form again as he defeated a strong field by 20 metres to win in 3:35.78 over 1500m.
At the Welsh Athletics Winter 10k in Newport, Callum Wilkinson secured a British record in the men’s 10,000m race walk while Emile Cairess (handicap -6.3) and Lily Partridge (handicap -1.4) were victorious at the Elite Only Winter 10k in Newport overcoming the Welsh opposition.
Wilkinson scored a dominant solo victory to break his own UK record by almost 50 seconds, with 39:05.85 over the 10 000m distance. Heather Lewis clocked 46:44.77 – which included a 60 second penalty for a technical infringement – to just miss the Commonwealth Games standards but her time was still a lifetime best.
Cairess and Partridge had accepted the invitation to join some of the top Welsh Athletes at the Elite Only Winter 10k event to give athletes an opportunity to race ahead of the Great Britain & Northern Ireland Olympic Team Trial for Marathon in Kew Gardens at the end of March.
Cairess, Kristian Jones (handicap -6.3) Dewi Griffiths (handicap -5.2)) and James Hunt (handicap -6.1) went through half-way in 14:10 in-line with the target pace for the Welsh Commonwealth Games qualification standard for Birmingham in 2022.
Jones was the last athlete to remain with Cairess when Griffiths lost ground with around five laps to go. Soon after Cairess began to pick the pace up and build up a commanding lead on Swansea Harrier, Jones.
The Leeds man increased the pace further over the last lap to lower his lifetime best to 28:14.30 with an emphatic victory. Jones then came agonisingly close to the desired 28:30 mark finishing just outside it in 28:33.17 and taking over half a minute off his 29:05.66 P.B. from 2017.
Dewi Griffiths was the third athlete home in a solid 28:45.72, signalling that his preparations for the Kew Gardens spectacle on March 26th are going to plan.
Charlotte Arter (handicap -2.4) led the early stages of the women’s race, ‘putting in a shift’ to help training partner Jenny Nesbitt (handicap -1.5) who was chasing the women’s qualification mark of 32:30.
Arter, Nesbitt, Clara Evans (handicap -1.4) and Lily Partridge (handicap -1.4) remained intact past the halfway point where they were on target pace to the second. Nesbitt shared the lead but when the pace slowed in the latter stages, Partridge pulled clear of the others and finished strongly in 32:33.16.
Jenny Nesbitt finished with 32:44.26 and training partner Clara Evans was third in 32:49.01 well ahead of her previous best.