Milton Keynes PB Classic – 06 June 2015 – Results

Races: 36
Finishers: 384
PBs 182 (47%)
Power of Ten results: Here

Report
IN-FORM Markhim Lonsdale was just a fraction off running the qualifying standard for the World Youth Games after breaking his personal best to win the 800m at the BMC PB Classic meeting at Milton Keynes.
Just a week after claiming the standard in the 1500m with a PB of 3:48.92 in the Grand Prix meeting at SportCity the 16-year-old Crook AC runner won the men’s A race in 1:51.48secs – just 0.48secs off the 1:51.00 target to qualify for Colombia.

Lonsdale just held off fellow 16-year-old Archie Davis, who was also rewarded with a PB of 1:52.00 while the impressive teenage trio was completed by Canaan Soloman in third with a lifetime best of 1:52.02 for what must represent one of the best young athletes’ 800m this season.

Indeed, the three athletes immediately moved to second, fourth and fifth in the UK Rankings for U17 men.
For Lonsdale, who is coached by David Lowes who works for the BMC, the time clipped 0.52secs off his best from 2014 and was his third two-lap event of the season.

There was an even younger winner of the A race with 15-year-old Chelmsford athlete Khahisa Mhlanga taking the honours in 2:11.53. That was outside her season’s best of 2:08.64, which she ran at Watford in April and which is the second quickest in the UK this season in the U17s age group – and just 0.64secs off the World Youth qualifying standard.

Reigning British and English Schools’ champion Harriet Knowles-Jones followed up her season’s best of 4:24.07 at Sportcity with another solid time of 4:26.64 to win the women’s 1500m A race. The 17-year-old Warrington AC athlete, who set her best of 4:21.71 last season, has her sights set on the European U20 qualifying mark of 4:20.00 but has some strong rivals ahead of her like Bobby Clay, Amy Griffiths, Kathryn Gillespie and Rosie Johnson, all of whom have already beaten the qualifying standard in BMC races this season.

Jodie Judd was a distant second to Knowles-Jones but the 16-year-old clocked a PB of 4:36.52 while in third 13-year-old West Suffolk youngster Olivia Allum broke her best for the fourth time this season with 4:37.78 – also breaking 4:40 for the first time – to move up to fourth in the UK U13 Rankings.

Ben Dijkstra shot to the top of the UK U17 Rankings with a superb runway win in the 3000m as the 16-year-old clocked 8:23.05 to shave 0.03secs off his 2014 best! Inspired by Dijkstra’s presence Chris Perham and Tom Mortimer also ran PBs in second and third while there were another six PBs further down the field of 17 runners.

Not to be out-done 14-year-old Bournemouth runner Ella Sykes, who is a student at Millfield School, made an impressive debut in the women’s 3000m with a winning time of 10:00.20 to go fourth on the UK U17 Rankings.
It was encouraging to see 53 young athletes contest five steeplechase races with the women’s 1500m event requiring two races.

Incredibly the first nine in the men’ 1500m event all ran PBs with the west pair of Taunton’s 15-year-old Dan Wilde and Team Bath’s 16-year-old Will Stockley having a great battle before the former edged it in 4:30.05 to go second on the UK U17 Rankings.

In the men’s 2000m steeplechase Declan McManus and Archie Walton went second and third on the UK U20 Rankings with PBs of 5:53.89 and 5:55.86 respectively.

West Suffolk’s Emily, who is top of the UK U20 Rankings, was a comfortable winner of the women’s 1500m ‘chase while in second Team Bath’s 16-year-old Caitlin Wosika, running only her second ‘chase, smashed her PB by 20 seconds with 5:07.79 to go third on the UK U17 Rankings with third-placed Alex Barbour just behind in a best of 5:08.05. All three finishers in the women’s 2k steeplechase ran PBs as did 11 of the 21 runners in the two women’s 1500m races.

From a massive record entry of 440 athletes there were 384 finishers in 36 races with a total of 182 personal bests.