Cowan boosts Euro selection hopes

Dwayne Cowan boosted his hopes of gaining selection for next month’s European Championships in the German capital, Berlin, with his best run of the summer at an international meeting in Spain.

Cowan missed out on automatic selection for the Euros in finishing fourth in the British championships in Birmingham (photograph above by Adrian Royle). However he is the third fastest British runner over the distance this summer. He posted his best time since competing in the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April in finishing fifth at the Guadalajara international meeting last Thursday in 45.99 seconds – inside the European Championships A standard of 46.00 for the second time.

The team selectors, who meet on July 23rd to pick the squad for Berlin, have to decide whether to give the third individual spot to Cowan, who, at 32, would be one of the oldest members of the squad, as well as a place in the 4x400m relay squad.

Meanwhile at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland, U20 sprinter Chad Miller agonisingly missed out on an automatic qualifying place for the final of the 100m by two hundredths of a second. Miller had made a flying start on Tuesday morning when he posted a lifetime best time in winning his heat in 10.33, and was the third fastest of the 24 qualifiers for the semi-finals. He lined up in the third of the semi finals needing to take one of the two automatic qualifying places or post yet another p.b. to be advanced as a fastest loser, but was just edged into third place in 10.38.

Alison Purnell helped make it a British medals clean sweep in the W55 age group at the World Duathlon Championships in Fyn, Denmark on Friday when she took the silver medal. She was runner-up in both the initial run and bike ride and managed to hang onto the silver medal spot despite clocking the third best time in the second run. Her teenage son Zac finished 16th in the SuperTri junior event in Dorney which was part of the National Junior Super Series.

Five Hercules Wimbledon distance runners showed impressive form on the track when they all posted personal best 3000m times in the British Milers Club’s Grand Prix meeting at Sutcliffe Park, Eltham, on Friday evening, which augurs well for some cracking times at the 3,000m Open Graded meeting at Wimbledon Park on August 1st.  Best of the bunch was Chris Wright who was third in his race in 8:25.18, more than nine seconds faster than his previous best set in 2010. Fred Slemeck clocked 8:29.48 to improve on his 8:29.71 set in Yeovil in May, while Belal Ahmed's time of 8:38.15 chopped more than 16 seconds off his previous best time set in 2016. In only his second race over the distance Finn Johnson clocked 9:04.48 to take more than 25 seconds off his previous best set at Battersea Park in May.

The only Hercules Wimbledon woman in action at Eltham, Cheryl Nolan, was seventh in the women’s race in 9:39.25, in her debut appearance over the distance.

In the final Vets League match at Kingston on Monday evening, there were wins across the board, culminating in victory for both the men's and women's 4 x 100m relay teams.