Charlotte Purdue (Aldershot Farnham & District) ran brilliantly at the BMC Grand Prix Final in Cardiff on Saturday 28 August to win the women’s 5000m in a new personal best of 15:23.4, taking her to second on the UK Under 20 all-time list.
Charlotte, Freya Murray and Justina Heslop soon pulled away from the rest of the field behind pacemaker Tina Brown. By the time Brown dropped out at the halfway point Heslop had been dropped with Murray leading the way, closely followed by Charlotte. With two laps to go Charlotte moved into the lead and pulled away over the last lap to win by three seconds.
After the race Charlotte said: “I’m really pleased with that. I knew I was in the shape to run close to the time I did tonight and it’s my last track race before the Commonwealth Games so it’s given me a lot of confidence before I run the 10,000m out there.”
The women’s 800m A race featured a fantastic sprint finish between Crawley AC club mates Charlotte Best and Dani Christmas (picture above). Dani pushed on the pace after the pacemaker dropped out at the 400 metre point, tracked by Charlotte. Charlotte started to make her move around the final bend and the two were neck and neck in the closing metres with Charlotte just taking the race on the dip and both athletes given the same time of 2:03.9. Carolyn Plateau (Radley AC) finished third in 2:06.8.
There was also a very close finish in the men’s 800m with Ed Aston (Cambridge & Coleridge) taking third in the same time of 1:48.80 as Gareth Warburton with the win going to Joe Thomas in 1:48.74.
Laura Weightman (Morpeth Harriers - above) continued her good run of form with victory in the women’s A 1500m in 14:12.82. A group of three athletes broke away in the early stages behind pacemaker Dani Christmas, with Laura second behind Laura Kenney and Tina Brown in third. Laura moved into the lead when Dani dropped out at the bell and pulled away over the last lap to win by three seconds from Kenney. Alison Leonard (Blackburn Harriers) finished strongly to take fourth in a new personal best of 4:18.52 with Stevie Stockton (Vale Royal) fifth in 4:20.73 and Jordan Kinney (Royal Sutton Coldfield) tenth in 4:32.00.
Laura had followed up the new 1500m best of 4:09.60 she set on 21 August with a new best of 2:03.18 for 800m in a mixed race at Trafford on Tuesday 24 August. A number of other OCWK athletes were in action at the same meeting with Carolyn Plateau clocking 2:09.40, Rachael Thompson (Liverpool Harriers) 2:10.35 and Leigh Lennon (Newham & Essex Beagles) 2:15.83 for 800m, Stevie Stockton 4:18.07 for 1500m and Heather Timmins (Warrington AC) 10:05.69 for 3000m.
Alison Leonard was also in action on 24 August, finishing fourth in an Under 23 800m race in 2:02.95 at the European Athletics Premium meeting in Lille, France, behind winner Yelena Kofanova of Russia’s 1:58.83.
Another OCWK athletes in PB form was Andrew Osagie (Harlow AC) who run under 1:47 for the first time with a 1:46.81 clocking in the 800m race at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Rieti, Italy on Sunday 29 August. The race was won by Kenyan Job Kinyor in 1:46.40.
Click on the links below to watch footage of the BMC Grand Prix Final at www.athleticos.org
Women’s 800m A race
Women’s 1500m A race
Women’s 5000m
Men’s 800m A race
Photos Mark Shearman
