Phoebe Anderson’s amazing USA track season continues with another Herne Hill Harriers senior women’s record on her 10000m debut where she clocked 32:54.50. In doing so she finished third in the Collegiate Women’s race at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at Princeton University on Saturday.
Her new mark lowers New Zealand international Georgie Grgec’s previous club track record at this distance by just over a minute. Grgec herself has been in good recent form and is lined up to race at the big Night of the 10000m PBs event at Highgate later this month.
New York student Anderson then had the legs to place second in the 5000m the following day with an impressive time of 15:55.14 to score more points for her Columbia University team.
Also in USA Collegiate competition, rising star Myles Copeland-Naulty won his 200m heat at the NJCAA Region I track and field championships in Mesa, Arizona last Tuesday with 21.02.
This is less than a tenth of a second outside his recent PB and he was again close to a long standing club senior men’s record. He followed up on Thursday by placing third in the final in 21.04 and on the same day also ran 48.23 to finish fourth in the 400m.
The British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) Championships were held at SportCity in Manchester over the bank holiday weekend, where there were some good performances from Harriers athletes.
In the Women’s shot on Monday Cerys Aboagye threw a PB of 12.55m in qualifying and then went on to finish sixth in the final with 12.66m to improve her new best distance.
In the same Women’s shot final Zara Acton placed eighth with 11.70m for a season’s best throw. Acton had also finished 11th in the discus final earlier in the weekend with 38.55m.
In the Men’s triple jump qualifying rounds Ignatius Abebrese leapt to a season’s best of 14.24m on Saturday, but was then unable to replicate or improve on this mark when coming 10th in the final the next day with13.95m. His season’s best of 6.56m in the long jump qualifying rounds was insufficient to qualify for a very strong final.
In the Women’s javelin on Monday Brunel University student Saidhbhe Byrne from Ireland was second in the B final with a PB of 39.40m.
In the men’s sprint race heats, the 200m saw Shanpy Sealy finish fourth in a PB of 22.65 and in the 400m Nathan Latigo was fourth with 51.31. Neither were able to advance into their semifinals.
In Wales on Sunday evening the Race for Victory Cardiff 5km was held in Whitchurch, a small village in the suburbs of the capital city.
Herne Hill’s Cardiff University medical student Liv Stillman ran a 17 seconds PB with an excellent time of 17:27. This performance placed her in the top twenty females in an international field based on chip times and is a good move forward after having seemed to plateau towards the end of the winter season.
Earlier on Sunday at the Copenhagen Marathon Sophie Gunning ran 2:59.19. This time was a little outside her PB, but was a very good return after only four weeks of marathon specific preparation. In achieving her target of sub three hours for this race she secured her qualification for next year’s Boston Marathon in the USA.
Also on Sunday at the Victoria Park Half Marathon evergreen Jonathan Ratcliffe was 13th overall in a big field of runners and was the winner of the M55 age category in 81:32.
Geoff Jerwood