Charlotte Purdue (Aldershot, Farnham & District) put in a stunning performance at the BMC meeting in Tipton on Saturday 14 August, improving her personal best for 10,000m by nearly a minute with 32:36.75 and breaking Charlotte Dale’s UK Under 20 record by 16 seconds.  The time was also well under the England Commonwealth Games qualifying standard of 33:00.00.

Charlotte was helped in her quest by fellow OCWK athlete Stevie Stockton who paced her to 3km in 9:45 before Laura Kenney took over.  By the 8km point Charlotte’s nearest challenger Sonia Samuels was struggling to stay with her as she began to pull away, leading by ten seconds with four laps to go.  Charlotte covered the final kilometre in 3:10 and the last lap in 69 seconds to win by nearly 30 seconds.

After the race Charlotte said: “I was aiming to break the British junior record.  Obviously the goal was to run under 33 minutes but I thought if I was going to do that then I should also go for the record.  I’m absolutely delighted with that time and hopefully that will be good enough to get me a place in the team.  When I made my comeback from injury after just two weeks training in the UK Championships and ran just 35:19 Mick (Woods) told me not to worry and said it would come good and tonight has proved that.”

In his quest to clock under the England Commonwealth Games 800m qualifying standard for the second time following his 1:47.02 clocking in Gothenburg on 10 August, Ed Aston (Cambridge & Coleridge) competed in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12 August and then a BMC meeting at Parliament Hill, London, on 14 August.  Despite clocking his second fastest time ever he was just outside the standard of 1:47.50.

In Copenhagen Ed won the 800m in 1:47.90 ahead of fellow Brit Mukhtar Mohammed who clocked 1:48.26.  At Parliament Hill the race was won by Andrew Osagie (Harlow AC - pictured above) in 1:49.40 with Ed second in 1:49.79.

At the Bedford Games on Sunday 15 August Tara Bird (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) finished third in the 400m in a season’s best of 55.00 and Shelayna Oskan (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) and Carolyn Plateau (Radley AC)  were first and second in the women’s 800m in 2:08.57 and 2:09.00.  Rick Ward (City of Norwich) finished third in the men’s 800m in 1:52.22.

Charlotte Roach competed in an ITU Triathlon European Cup race in Geneva on 15 August, finishing 18th in 2:26.03.  She completed the 1500m swim in 21:53, the 40km bike in 1:20:00 and the 10km run in 41:24.  The race was won by fellow Brit Jodie Swallow in 2:15.45.

Click on the links below to watch race footage on www.athleticos.org

Men’s 800m at the BMC meeting at Parliament Hill on 14 August
Women’s 400m at the Bedford Games on 15 August
Women’s 800m at the Bedford Games on 15 August


Photo Mark Shearman