INSPIRED by watching training partner James Brewer’s personal best in the heats of the 1500m at the World Championships Andrew Osagie produced a sparkling performance at the BMC finale in Cardiff. The 21-year-old St Mary’s University student knew he had to deliver something special to impress his mate in Germany and he delivered with a PB of 1mins 47.15secs to win the 800m A race and shave 0.55secs off the time he clocked when winning the England Athletics Under 23s title.
“I was really chuffed when I heard about James and that lifted me for the race,” said Osagie, who is coached by Craig Winrow. “That was hard but there is definitely still some more time to come off that,” added Osagie. The women’s A 800metres was equally exciting for the expectant crowd and for Claire Gibson a share of the £5000 pot from the McCain UK Challenge was on offer. She not only clinched that but also added £400 for winning the race and a further £600 for a new personal best of 2mins 01.34secs.
“I knew I was in PB shape and to win with a new best time was very satisfying,” said the 27-year-old Scot, who wound up the pace from 600 metres to hold off GB international Hannah England in a thrilling finish. Jermaine Mays knew he didn’t need to win the 1500m to ensure his share of the McCain jackpot so he could ignore the early pacesetting of Nick McCormick, who had a good lead at the bell. Mays made his move up the back straight moving into second but Australian 800m champion Nick Bromley surprised them all to win in a season’s best of 3:41.18.
“I have run 1mins 47secs about 22 times so I’m moving up to the 1500m now,” said Bromley, who is based at St Mary’s, in London. “I came here for a hit-out because these BMC races are fantastic with a really good calibre of runner.” Also noteworthy were PBs for junior Simon Horsfield in fourth and the trio of Gavin Massingham, Frank Baddick and Daniel Clorley, who all finished in the top eight.
There was also a foreign winner of the women’s 1500m with Norwegian champion Ingvill Makestad Bovim winning with some ease in a time of 4:10.58, just outside her PB of 4:09.62.
Chasing the Oslo-based runner, who was part of a strong Scandinavian contingent lured to the UK by the high-quality BMC races, Laura Kenny ran a season’s best of 4:13.49 while just behind her European Under 5000m bronze medallist Emily Pidgeon clocked a superb PB of 4:13.56.
“I’m absolutely delighted with that,” said a beaming Pidgeon.
Expectations were high for the men’s 500m and Moumin Geele didn’t disappoint the enthusiastic crowd. Passing through 3000m in 8:08.9 the 23-year-old Somalian-born athlete, who is hoping to soon acquire British citizenship, maintained his form to win in a huge personal best of 13:34.66, lopping 14 seconds off his previous best. Geele knew he had to run fast after watching training partner Samater Farah clip six seconds off his PB to win the 3000m steeplechase with 8:50.93.
Only four women registered for the women’s chase and three of those, including winner Sara Luck, ran PBs while former World Cross Country champion Benita Johnson returned from the Australian World Championships training camp in Cologne for a work-out over 5000m to sharpen up for the forthcoming Great Yorkshire Run.