Athletics round-up: Penney produces stellar display for Hercules Wimbledon at Comeback 5000m

HERCULES WIMBLEDON

Andrew Penney produced one of the best performances by a Hercules Wimbledon athlete in recent years as he finished sixth in the elite race at the Comeback 5000m at Battersea Park’s Millennium Arena on Friday night, running a PB of 14:00.64 and further cementing his place at sixth on the club’s all-time list.

Penney has been in imperious form for a number of years now but has continued to elevate his performances to the top level of domestic racing. His run on Friday is the 28th best by any UK athlete this year and saw him finish third of the non-professional athletes in the field. The race was won by European U23 10,000m champ Rory Leonard in 13:29.54, the ninth-fastest by a Brit this year.

In a busy race of 35 athletes, Penney quickly took up his place at the head of the second pack, before catching some of the leaders over the final laps, including GB-international James Kingston.

It was a similarly successful evening for Charlie Eastaugh in the fastest of the open races, moving two places higher on the Hercules all-time list to 18th (14:28.51) for seventh.

Eastaugh, who usually spends most of his summers competing at the shorter distances of 1,500m to 3,000m, stepped up for only the fifth time, taking five seconds off his PB. In doing so, he continued his streak of running faster in each of his outings over the distance.

Henry Silverstein finished 21st in 15:06.08. Earlier in the evening Richard Jones finished 25th in his heat in 16:30.94.

Adam Collins was competing at the Hamburg Marathon, where he ran a PB of 2:56:55.

GB-international Alex Milne was acting as a pacemaker for the elite women, running the with the leading German for 20km before a freak accident saw her hit the drinks table and have to pull out.

Milne subsequently waited three minutes for the second German, accompanying her to the finish and clocking a 2:35 marathon in the process.

Ed Mallett competed in the SoCal Grand Prix 10km in the USA, winning the hilly event in 32:50, three minutes clear of his nearest competitor.

Jack Hobden clocked a PB of 9:07 for 3,000m at the SLAN April Open at the David Weir Athletics Track in Carshalton, a 14-second improvement on his previous best mark.

Herne Hill Harriers

The Belgrave Harriers’ Comeback 5000 races at Battersea Park track moved on to yet another level this year, writes Geoff Jerwood.

Every race was of a high calibre, from the early open events through to the elite women’s and men’s races which were the showpieces of the evening.

The weather was breezy and chilly for super fast times, but the races were very exciting for a good crowd of supporters and athletes alike, with a strong meeting model for future editions to build on.

Herne Hill Harriers athletes featured in almost all of the seven 5,000m track races and also in the men’s invitational 800m race.

Sam Bramwell continued his progress towards top level when he finished ninth in the elite men’s race at the end of the night, recording a big PB of 14:03.17.

Undeterred by the quality of opponents when running in a strong chasing pack behind a smaller lead group, Bramwell took the race to those he was among in the closing stages when realising the pace around him was dropping outside his sub-14 minutes time target. This was a strong track season opener, with only three other men in the long history of the club ever having run quicker and Bramwell being quite new to the sport.

Harry Bell ran a similarly mature and tactically astute race to place 10th in the fourth race with a superb PB of 15:02.27. As with Bramwell’s effort, there was nothing not to like about this performance and if Bell can find another 10 seconds then the club’s U20 men’s 5,000m record could soon become his.

Georgie Grgec placed fifth in a rather up and down elite women’s race in terms of their pace per lap. The main protagonists went out hard, but then slowed after less than 1km and by four laps Grgec found herself tucked in a big pack moving slower than planned. When the first three moved decisively Grgec became an unappointed pacer for the rest. She gradually shook off all bar one of these to clock 16:00.83.

In the fifth race Brandon Dewar clocked 15:06.60 and Lewis Laylee 15:10.74, while in the third race M50 Simon Coombes ran 16:18.04. First Harriers athlete on the track in the second race was Ryan Willmott, who did well to clock 16:45.46  just six days after his marathon PB in London.

David Moyse was second in the A 3,000m in 9:02.24 on Saturday at the SLAN open meeting at Sutton  as he followed up his 5km road PB in Dulwich a week earlier with a good track opener.
U13 Sasha Nolan jumped a PB of 4.79m in the long jump and ran a PB of 13.37 in the 100m. U15 Esther Ency ran a PB 13.30 in the 100m, U17 India Blakey ran a PB of 49.67 for 300m hurdles and U15 Arnold Duan a PB of 10:22.59 in winning the B 3,000m.

On Sunday morning Gaby Reynolds was the winner of the Hogsmill 5 miles race by more than a minute in 34:02.

Most would be delighted with this run, but Reynolds’ performance takes on a whole new dimension when considering that this race was run fewer than six weeks after she gave birth to her third child.