Herne Hill Harriers’ Olympian and World Championship finalist Katie Snowden opened her outdoor track season at the Sound Running Track Fest meet in Los Angeles which attracted world class fields in a series of middle distance races.
After a training block at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona the 31-year-old was keen to test her race readiness and post an early season mark over her main 1500m race distance, while admitting that her recent work has been largely strength based longer distance work.
In the circumstances she was pleased enough to place a very close third with 4:03.74, only half a second behind the winner after having held a narrow lead around the final bend. Her time slots her into second on the early season UK rankings behind Paris Olympic bronze medalist Georgia Bell from her indoor season.
Now home in Balham after her USA camp, Snowden will be looking to race on the European circuit in the coming weeks to kickstart things as she aims towards a place in the Great Britain team for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September in one of Britain’s strongest events.
The BMC Grand Prix meet in Bury featured a good win for Arlo Ludewick in the men’s 1500m A race in 3:45.84. It was a more tactical affair rather than one in which fast times were collectively being chased. Ludewick hit the front before the bell to take the tape quite comfortably ahead of his nearest rival and will now hope for a faster race at the next BMC Grand Prix in Birmingham in early June.
More locally, recent Harriers club women’s marathon record breaker Lucy Jones was back in racing action less than four weeks after her London Marathon heroics.
In the elite women’s race at the Comeback 5000 meet in Battersea Park Jones gave supporters from her training group plenty to cheer as she led for a few laps of her race before finishing just over half a second behind the winner, clocking a big track 5000m PB of 16:03.92. This was a superb track season opener, with more big races to follow in the coming weeks.
In the same race Sophie Tooley ran very well to also smash her track 5000m PB with 16:36.72, her first track sub-17. In earlier races during the evening Morgan Roberts ran a track PB of 14:43.01 with a strong run ahead of Harry Bell’s 14:57.39 after featuring prominently earlier in the race. Before this U20 Charlie Wood ran an outright PB for the distance with his 15:50.62 in the second race of the night.
Back up in Bury, Daniel Shaw continued his strong start to the season with 3:56.52 for 5th in his first 1500m since 2023, while over in Queensland, Australia Brian Wilder ran 16:51 in the Noosa 5k road race, placing 6th overall and 1st M50 as he steadily returns to form.
Geoff Jerwood