British distance runners this month broke the British men’s 10km record and the fastest ever indoor 3000m by a junior woman.
Congratulations to Rory Leonard A! British record: 27:38 on Sunday in Valencia. Since winning the European Under-23 10,000m title 18 months ago, the Morpeth Harriers have gone from strength to strength under the coach. Andy Hobdell.
Save a thought Nick RoseHowever, who ran 27:34 in the Crescent City Classic in 1984, Rose’s mark was not recognized as a British record, but Mark Nenow saw his 27:22 marked as the best in the world at the time, and it remained in the world athletics rankings for years until it finally got an asterisk next to it: stating that it is “unverified”.
When Farah set the official British record of 27:44 in 2010, I contacted Rose about her mark and she described the 10km record area as “murky waters.” She added: “If record courses have to start and finish at a certain distance, then my run in New Orleans doesn’t qualify for record purposes. All you can say is that it’s the fastest 10km run.”
Nick Rose (Mark Shearman)
Even faster than Rose and Leonard, John Brown clocked 27:20 in Pittsburgh in 1995, although the former European champion readily admitted that it was a descent. he said AW: on time. “I could glide for three minutes if I jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet.”
Hopefully, Leonard will run faster in the future to consign all these unverified marks to the history books.
Innes Fitzgerald (Andy Cox)
FitzGerald in the footsteps of Zola Budd
Ever since Innes Fitzgerald came out of almost nowhere to set the UK under-17 women’s 3000m record of 8:59.67 at the SIAB Schools International in 2022, it was clear that she was the most talented junior Brit of her generation.
Since then he has won 2 European titles and finished fourth in the U20 3000m last year behind three East Africans. Another measure of his ability came last weekend when he ran 8:48.30 at the BMC indoor meet in Cardiff. :
Although she won the race by 22 seconds, with the nearest man nearly a minute behind, Fitzgerald’s time cannot stand as a British under-20 women’s indoor record as it was set in a mixed-gender race.
Consequently, the official British Under-20 record is still held by Zola Budd of 8:56.13, won in Cosford in 1985 against GB against West Germany.
That means Fitzgerald, who doesn’t turn 19 until April, is eight seconds faster as a junior in the 3000m than Budd, although what the barefoot runner from South Africa would run in today’s super is a different story.
Zola Budd wins the 1985 World Cross (Mark Shearman)
Budd’s performance was also a British and Commonwealth indoor record in 1985. Furthermore, a few weeks later she won the women’s world title in Lisbon, 23 seconds ahead of Ingrid Christiansen, who in turn won the London Marathon the following month in 2:21:06.
Hopefully FitzGerald can maintain a similar trajectory, although it will take a little longer to achieve such lofty goals.Thriving in Gavin Pavey’s coaching group at Devon and enjoying life as a fresher at Exeter University, he is certainly on the right track.
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