Both Fry and Eloise Walker came in below the race record, while Charlie Wheeler’s kick was good enough for victory at Battersea.
Izzy Fry continued his excellent start to the season after winning the SportsShoes Podium x adidas 5km (February 27).
The 25-year-old clocked 15:18, well short of Charlotte Dunnatt’s record of 15:37 at Battersea, to claim a close victory over Eloise Walker.
There was hardly anything to separate the two, who were both more than 20 seconds ahead of third-placed Poppy Tank, with Walker coming home in 15:19, just one second behind Fry.
It was Fry’s second fastest ever at 5km when she ran 15:17 in Monaco two weeks ago to finish fifth behind Diane Van Ess, Jana Van Lent, Clara Lucan and Laura Muir.
Fry was also the third-fastest British woman in the 10km in Valencia last month, running 31:01, 40 seconds off her personal best and seventh in the all-time Great Britain standings.
“I just mentally prepared myself to get a good hard run at Battersea,” Fry told AW. “February was about doing two 5km road races and getting a boost because I can get a lot more out of myself in a race than in training. The main goal now is to run a really fast 10,000m at the end of March. My mindset going into it was to go out as much as myself on the day I go out.
“It’s nice to be consistent at 5km. I left pretty disappointed in Monaco because I knew it was a really good opportunity. We ran the first km there in about 3:09, whereas today it was around 3:01/3:02. So they were very different styles of racing.”
Fry, who finished ninth over 5,000m at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome, has decided to skip the indoor event this season and instead prioritize road racing. Her biggest goal this summer is to compete over 10,000m in at least one of the Commonwealth Games or the European Athletics Championships.
Charlie Wheeler won the men’s elite field with his excellent shot the difference in a close match.
A three-horse 400m final won by Wheeler, Andrew Penny and Tom Graham-Marr at Battersea Park.
Although Jack Kavanagh’s record of 13:34 was just out of reach, Wheeler still clocked 13:49.2 and Penny was close behind in 13:49.4 and Graham-Marr ran 13:50.
Wheeler had competed in one race prior to her run in London, posting a 5,000m mark of 13:30.08 at Boston University’s David Hemery Valentine.
“There was a great group at the race,” Wheeler said afterward. “I didn’t have the legs I expected, so it was about kicking and then catching all the way. As the UK’s depth gets stronger, there’s no race you can run away from.
“There were points where I was fighting for my life and I was just happy to be in contact at the last bend.”
