There were several fine performances and personal bests at the BMC Grand Prix at Watford last Saturday but only one winner.
The victory, which was also a PB came in the 5000m A race when Brighton & Hove’s Ian Crowe-Wright had a terrific battle with David Mallarkey from Leeds to snatch victory by less than half a second in 13:47.11s to 13:47.55s. This chopped some forty seconds off his previous best. This takes Ian into seventh place on the Sussex All-time list. In the same race Ian’s clubmate, Tomer Tarragano removed eight seconds off his previous best in 20th place in 14:16.47s. In the “B” race, Finn McNally (Brighton Phoenix) took second place in 14:19.86 while in the Women’s Harriett Bloor (Lewes) finished 13th in a PB of 16:19.25.
There were several other excellent performances in the shorter events with Tom Niner (Brighton & Hove) clocking 1:50.99s for second place in the “D” race. In the “E” race, Worthing’s Charlie Baldwin clocked 1:51.58s in third place and Miles Waterworth (Phoenix), who is still in the U17 age group and missed the Sussex Schools championships on the same day, clocked a PB of 1:52.24 for second place in the “F” race.
There was another good 800m run in the Women’s “C” race where Crawley’s Grace Van Agnew moved to 11th place on the Sussex All Time Lists with a PB of 2:07.58s placing second in the “B” race.
In the Women’s 1,500m races Beth Kidger (Phoenix) finished 11th in 4:21.9s while in the C race club mate Alice Wright (U20) improve her PB with 4:24.60s in fourth place.
In the 3,000m steeplechase, Horsham Blue Star’s Bradley Burke clocked 9:09.22 when placing fifth in the “A” race.