Norman Poole pulled it off yet again! As President of the
exclusive British Milers club that provides top level competition
for the nation's elite athletes, our nationally acclaimed
middle-distance coach put on his annual feast of top-class running
for the annual BMC Grand Prix at Sportcity on May 29th.
He also pulled off near perfect weather! Though the hours
beforehand were wet and dreary and the later hours windy, near
perfect conditions for the five hours of competition meant that
about 90% of the 300 elite middle-distance runners from throughout
Britain and Ireland's went home with lifetime bests or season's
best performances.
Among the club members, in the 800m, seventeen year old
Matt Holmes set the evening off with his best of
2:00.30. Lee Whitley also produced a SB of 1:58.59
and came within a whisker of a PB. Still early evening,
Donna Riding was hopeful of coming close to her
800m PB of 2:06.97.She was always in the leading pack and, had she
not been the victim of a couple of elbow tussles that knocked her
rhythm would have clocked even faster than 2:08.31. Ruth
Watson travelled all the way from Peterborough in the hope
of clocking a 2:10 performance. She chased the pacemaker on a 63
second schedule and looked as though she might achieve her
aim.....until the final 100m when the 'wheels came off' to clock a
disappointing 2:15.27.
Britain's No.1 junior, eighteen year old Niall
Brooks, ran a tactically sound 1500m race to clock a
seasons' best of 3:43.22 and qualify for the European Junior
championships (He's already qualified for the 800m). In the same
'A' race Nick Samuels had every reason to be
delighted to record a PB of 3:44.54 to add to his excellent
winter's indoors. In the 'C' 1500m, following a successful and
consistent winter James Bailey was also rewarded
with a long promised and well-deserved PB of 3:48.02. In the
'G' 1500m another promising youngster Charlie
Hulson, the U/17 & U15 Welsh 800m champion, also set a
new wonderful benchmark of 3:58.20
The floodlights were on for the 5000m races that topped the long
evening. Again, almost everyone in every race recorded a PB and
among them Matt Bond, in the form of his life this
year, achieved his ambition of dipping under 14.30to clock
14:25.69. Dave Norman, weeks after 2:19.05 in the
London Marathon, must be well satisfied to record a SB of 14:32.49.
For full results visit http://www.britishmilersclub.com
(Written by Fechin Mc Cormick)