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Beth, Bobby and Finn fast in London
Tuesday 21st February 2023
Fast times at the Friday Night under the lights races
Phoenix had three athletes in the Elite races on 17th February at Battersea Park for the night 5k races.
This event requires qualifying times for each of the 5, 5k races held on a two lap course at Battersea Park and with generous sponsorship from Sportshoes.com and Adidas Running, rewarded all entrants with pizza and beer after their races.
Welsh and GB international Beth Kidger was one of the fastest qualifiers for the womens elite race, which also featured fellow internationals, Cali Thackray and Revee Walcott-Nolan and they competed for a £1000 course record prize. Bobby Searle, Brighton Half Marathon winner in 2021, also made the Elite race start line.
Beth, running in her contracted HOKA racing kit, held back slightly at the start, not going out with the fast starting Cali Thackray but staying at the front of the chasing pack with eventual winner Walcott-Nolan just in front. By the end of the first lap, Beth was racing in 5th place and moving through the field behind the two leaders Thackray and Walcott-Nolan up front. Her recent long flights to and from Australia didnt affect her too much as she came through to finish an excellent 4th with 16:08 to pick up a nice cash prize which is the 4th best road 5k time in UK in 2023.
Bobby Searles finishing time of 18:12, just a few seconds outside her PB, moves her into the top 75 in the UK rankings for 2023.
Finn McNally qualified for the Mens elite race, where a 14:30 time was required in order to get a place on the start line and his14:09 PB here last year, with14:24 at Brighton Prom Parkrun recently, certainly showed that he had a chance of mixing it at the front of the race. At halfway there was still a group of 20 or so men in the lead, which unfortunately meant that we wouldn't see any extremely fast times as no one was willing to go-for-it and winning the cash that was on offer seemed to be the order of the day. Finn eventually came home 11th a little dissapointed not to get pulled round to a faster time, just missing out on the cash prizes for the top 10.
They all try the same course again in March and April when the same high quality athletes race in the next series of races at this venue.