Go Jonny Go

On the evening of the hottest day of the year so far Jonny Cornish clocked a fantastic personal best of 29:58.53 – his first time under 30-minutes – to clinch the bronze medal in the England Athletics 10,000m Championships, which rounded off the Fast Friday event at Walthamstow on 17 June. Behind him in 7th place Alex Milne also achieved a PB of 30:50.54, while in earlier races Finn Johnson and George Mallett clocked 34:39.75 and 32:53.15 respectively.

This is Jonny's account of a great evening's work:

'I was excited for the race as training had been going quite well in the build-up – though you never know if this will translate to race day. The least I hoped for was to run a PB, but the aim was to go sub-30 minutes. When I arrived there was already a nice atmosphere and it was fantastic to see a number of Hercules members racing and supporting, which buoyed my confidence.

'I was glad to be racing later in the evening at 9:15pm when the temperature had cooled – although it was still 20°C+ – however I thought this might suit me as I usually like running in the heat – up to a point! The race started at a good honest pace of 70-71 second laps led by the pace maker which I was pleased about and tried to keep my head down and keep ticking off the laps. Having Finn and George shouting split times from the 300m mark was a great help and confidence boost that we were on track.

'There was a bit of jostling for position but I managed to stay as close to the inside as possible to minimise any unnecessary energy expenditure. Before I knew it 5km had passed in roughly 14:48 and the pacemaker stepped off the track. At this point sometimes you feel a sense of foreboding as you have to take on the pace yourself but I was feeling quietly confident and optimistic At the front Jack Gray was looking around waiting for someone to take it on, so reluctantly I obliged for two laps as I didn't want the pace to slow. I then hoped we could share the workload, which seemed to work, but with 5-6 laps to go there were still four of us, with just three medals up for grabs, so I decided I needed to try and take it on again, but without killing myself.

'I tried to pick up the pace conservatively so as not to surge, though this did mean the others responded and the group stayed together. I knew with two laps to go I really needed to push on but just couldn't seem to pick it up quite enough. I was still in first position as we went through the bell but could feel the group all on my shoulder waiting to pounce.

'At 300m it was still neck and neck. Then the three waiting athletes steamed past before an electric last 200m finish between Charlie Brisley (the eventual winner) and Dylan Evans. I crossed the line two seconds behind Jack Gray but was elated to realise I had achieved my aim of a sub 30min time by 2 secs – and also, although I finished fourth, I had actually placed third in the Championships, since one of the racers is an Australian national. Becoming an England Athletics bronze medallist was a proud moment!'

Full results

New PB for Ellen

U20 Ellen Weir chipped away further at her 5000m PB at the BMC International Grand Prix at Watford on 11 June, clocking 16:30.44. She had hoped to go even faster, but right now her big priority is concentrating on her A levels!

Fred Slemeck tore up the track over the last 100 metres to surge over the line in third in his 5000m race in 14:40.86. (In the race commentary much praise was heaped on Dan Cliffe's precision pacing – with his famous pink shorts warranting a mention, too!). Also in action was Andrew Penney who had hoped to build on his 1500m PB of 3:47.32 achieved at Wimbledon Park on 1 June. However in a choppy race, in which the pacemaker stretched away from the pack before a last lap burn-up, he had to settle for ninth place in 3:49.86. Cheryl Nolan clocked 4:35.82 in her 1500m race.

Full results

Above: Ellen on her way to a PB (photo BMC); below, top, Fred Slemeck in the 5000m and Andrew Penney in the 1500m (photos by Mark Hookway)