Millfield PB Classic – 05 May 2014 – Results

Races: 30
Finishers: 314
PB’s: 170 (54%)
Power of Ten: Here

YOUNGSTER Rory Howorth leapt to the top of the UK Rankings for under 13 boys with a fabulous personal best in the 800m.
Lining up for the F race – one of 18 over two laps on a grey, wet evening – the 11-year-old Team Bath AC runner finished third in a time 2mins 11.92secs for third place.
The time was also a UK Age 11 best as it shaved 0.38secs off the previous mark set by Tonbridge runner Thomas Kendrick in July 2011.
On top of his PB of 4mins 34.0secs for 1500m the previous weekend Howorth now stands top of the national rankings at both distances.
Rory wasn’t the only member of the Howorth family to impress at the 20th annual Millfield meeting. Older brothers Robert and John – 14-year-old twins also coached by Adrian Clover – ran personal bests of 2:08.04 and 2:08.11 respectively.
At the very sharp end Cornwall AC’s Charlotte Cayton-Smith, who won her first national title at the England Athletics Indoor U20 Championships, opened with a comfortable victory in the 800m A race in 2:08.58 to go second on the early season national rankings.
“I would have liked a quicker time but that is okay for my first race,” said Cayton-Smith.
Coach Daryl Maynard had said before the men’s A race that son Joseph was going to ignore the pacemaker and go off harder than the flagged 55 seconds split.
Maynard did just that and always looked in control until the inevitable fatigue and the blustery conditions down the back straight took their toll as he dropped to 1mins 50.40secs but was still over three seconds clear of the field. Better times are sure to come from Maynard on this evidence.
England Athletics Indoor U20s 1500m champion Kyran Roberts was runner-up in 1:53.40.
In the B race 17-year-old Swindon Harrier Ciaran Cooper smashed his personal best by almost four seconds with a time of 1min 53.73secs to carve almost four seconds off his best mark.
“That is a huge personal best for me and I am really chuffed with that time,” said Cooper.
For Cooper, who is coached by Bryan Clinton, it is his third PB over 800m in as many races this season. He opened with 1:57.86 in March, shaving 0.42secs off his 2013 best, then improved to 1:57.4 last month before Monday’s breakthrough.
Cooper wasn’t the only Swindon Harrier to catch the eye over two laps at the Bank Holiday meeting that attracted over 300 runners from across the country.
Training partner Will Crisp also improved his personal best showing great concentration and character as the 14-year-old trailed at the rear of a strong field in the C race.
Crisp actually finished last of the eight runners – all of whom were older than him – but that stat offered no hint of the importance of the run as his time of 2:04.06 sliced 1.82secs of his 2013 best and catapulted him to the top of the UK Rankings for under 15 boys.

In the women’s 1500m British and English Schools’ 800m champion Molly Long opened her season with victory in a time of 4:35.98 immediately put her joint 10th in the UK Rankings for under 20 women.
“Bearing in mind that it was her first race since August last year and she has had a few illnesses over the winter that is a good solid start for Molly and she said there is plenty more to come,” said coach John Knowles.
Former British Students Indoor champion Mike Wilsmore returned for his first race outdoors in 18 months after injury problems to win the 1500m A race.
“It is good to be back and now hopefully I can kick on,” said Wilsmore.
British cross country international Dewi Griffiths had a good night’s work first winning the 3000m in a PB of 8:14.27 and then just missing his PB in the 1500m by 0.11secs an hour or so later.
At first glance the conditions hardly seemed conducive to personal bests but the stats proved otherwise as of the 314 finishers in the 30 races there were 170 PBs, an impressive 54 per cent, though of course many were from young athletes opening their seasons after a good winter of hard training.
“It was another great night,” said meeting joint organiser and announcer Mike Down.