Five go to Manchester

Following a few weeks in which HW athletes have been busily achieving qualifiying standards and winning medals at a clutch of Championships, a fabulous tally of five HW athletes will be competing in the Muller British Championships in Manchester over the weekend of 25-27 June: Charlie Eastaugh in the 1500m, Dwayne Cowan in the 400m, Rechmial and Chad Miller in the 100m, and Ellen Weir in the 3000m trials for the U20 European Championships.

Mission Manchester began for Charlie Eastaugh when Mark Hookway of Tonbridge AC suggested to HW competition supremo Ben Noad that they cook up a fast invitational 1500m to round off the Middle Distance Night the Club was hosting at Wimbledon Park on June 2. The sub-plot was to see how many athletes might crack the qualifying time of 3:47.00 for the British Championships. Not that they were publicising that; so no pressure on the athletes. Then, who should get to hear of the event, but Elliot Giles, European bronze medallist and British number one over 800m, looking for a warm up race before heading to Hengelo, Netherlands, to compete over that distance on the World Athletics tour four days later.

And so, to round off an evening of great competitive racing at Wimbledon Park, in which 68 athletes (48 per cent of the field) achieved PBs, we were treated to a fantastic finale with Giles cruising to victory in 3:40.36; while in the fast and furious finish, Charlie clocked a huge PB of 3:45.45, triggering his invitation to Manchester.


Above: Elliot Giles on his way to a comfortable 3:40.36 victory at Wimbledon Park, and below, the charge for the line. Photos by Mark Hookway

Clearly the Giles factor worked to everyone’s advantage as the first seven athletes all ran inside the qualifying time (Elliot himself went on to win the 1500m in Marseille on 9 June in a PB of 3:33.80). ‘I think it made everyone step up their game and not waste the opportunity of being towed round’, says Charlie. ‘Massive kudos to Ben Noad and Mark Hookway who put the Wimbledon Diamond League on the map! It was an amazing night with loads of friends there’.

‘To be honest my season’s goal in the 1500m was 3:49’, says Charlie.’ I knew no-one at Hercules had run that time since 1991 (the year of my birth) and it's the British Milers’ Club ‘Gold Standard’ (and yes my order for the gold vest is already in). So it was a big surprise to tick so many boxes in one race.

‘Ben and I agreed that I would run around 62 seconds for the first two laps regardless of positioning. This turned out to be dead last – which was quite testing’, he admits, ‘but I stuck with the plan. We knew my strength would help gain some places and as it turned out, it did, as I ran 62,62,60 and closed in a 57 second last lap’.

The last HW athlete to run inside 3:49 was Justin Fairborough, who clocked 3:45.58 in a race at Loughborough in 1991. However Charlie’s time has leapfrogged him above him into third place in the rankings behind Mike Beevor (one of the greats of the HW teams of that era, along with the Holt brothers), who ran 3:43.6 back in 1969 – interestingly, Bob and Dave Holt remember him as more of a cross country specialist than a track athlete. And of course at the top of the 1500m rankings is our Chairman, Dave Clarke, whose time of 3:39.27 achieved in Oslo in 1982, is just one of the five Club track records he holds from 1500m to 10,000m.

Above: marksman Fred Green calls up the Invitational 1500m field

When Charlie first joined HW he was convinced his best distance was over 800m, having won the National Indoor Championships as an U17 in 2007, but between them, he and coach Ben Noad decided that it was time to step up a distance. ‘As a junior I had decent flat speed (23.9 for 200m for example) but I don’t have that anymore really,' he admits. 'The 1500m was a natural progression as it’s a bit slower but requires a lot of strength endurance. We think 3000m might be the perfect distance for me, and probably 5000m too eventually’.

From a coaching point of view Ben believes that the hard work put in within a talented squad of 3K and 5K specialists has contributed to Charlie’s current form on the track and road (he ran 14:18 in the second Friday Night 5K Under the Lights in Battersea Park on 28 May).

‘I have learned that preparing for the 1500m essentially means being strong enough to run a good 5K and fast enough to run a fast 400m on very tired legs’ Charlie agrees. ‘You don’t need pure speed to do that – but it does help. The training group is oriented around 5K which has helped us all gain a very decent grounding in strength endurance, which we can now pivot to our chosen distances: 1500m up to the marathon if necessary. A huge part of the collective and early successes of the squad this year has been the ongoing support both from Ben but also Keith Scofield, a stalwart of our track Tuesdays and ‘Field of Dreams’ Saturdays. I’d also like to give a shout out to Roberto – ‘the Butcher of Pimlico’ – for weekly sports massages; strongly recommended!

The heats of the 1500m in Manchester take place on Friday evening, and while Charlie confides that, as a junior, his pre-race nerves were ‘awful’, as a senior, he says: ‘I’m relaxed about every race and rarely nervous anymore. I have a stressful job and so running is a great distraction. I think the context of what real stress feels like puts things like racing for fun into perspective’.

Of course 1500m heats at major championships can sometimes be cagey affairs but Charlie predicts, ‘all of the heats will be super fast. Probably 3:42 to make the final. So I have nothing to lose really by getting stuck in and enjoying the ride. My closing speed is better than most of my rivals so if it’s slower then I have a better chance, but either way it’ll be good fun’.

Full results

Thanks to Alice Garner's dad for the photograph from the race above

When 17 year-old Ellen Weir lines up in the 3000m in Manchester, it will be her second opportunity to bid for a place at the U20 European Championships, which are being held at Kadriorg Stadium in Tallinn, Estonia in July. Thanks to a stellar women's 5000m in the Watford BMC meeting on Saturday which was designed for both U20s and U23s to chase qualification times for their respective Championships, Ellen staked her claim to a place in the team.

In a race paced by Jess Judd, fresh from achieving the Olympic qualifiying time over the 10,000m, and featuring Jo Pavey (pictured with Ellen, left), Ellen finished third U20 behind Alice Garner of Aldershot, Farnham & District, and Phoebe Anderson of Herne Hill Harriers, in a massive PB of 16:34.29 – well inside the U20 qualifying time of 16:40.00.

'I'm happy with my run, but I don’t think my legs have ever hurt so much at the end of a race', admitted Ellen afterwards. Coaches Anne Hegvold and Vikki Filsell were able to watch as the race was streamed live. 'We thought 16:40 was in reach', says Anne, 'but 16:34 was amazing. Ellen has taken a big step forward this year, building up strength and consistency. The European Championships have been her goal and some of the Club's senior men have been pacing her during training, so she was used to that and had trained for a paced-race'.

Now poised in third place in the UK rankings she has to wait for a few weeks until the selectors make their final decision. In the meantime, she goes again in Manchester in the 3000m, in which she is currently ranked fifth U20. Three of her rivals already have the European qualification time of 9:30.00, however should she achieve that time and finish in a medal position, she may even be spoiled for choice!

Full results


And in the Fast Lanes...

The most experienced trio at the British Championships in Manchester will be Dwayne Cowan, World And European bronze medallist in the 4 x 400m relay, and Rechmial and Chad Miller. It has been a tough year for Dwayne in which the athletics world mourned the passing of his father and coach, Lloyd Cowan, and his only previous race over 400m in 2021 was in the GB team at the World Athletics Relays in Chorzów, Poland in May.

Chad Miller, who won bronze in the 100m at the European U20 Championships in 2019 will be looking to book a place at the U23 European Championships (also being held in Tallinn, Estonia) when he competes at Bedford in the U23 and U20 Championships this weekend, and he and older brother Rechmial, both former national champions over 100m, have accepted their invitations to the British Championships in Manchester the following weekend – not that they are strangers to the big stage, having competed in the Championships twice previously.

The brothers are currently both being coached by father Paul. Rechmial is at home for the competition season, having opted to train in Jamaica with coach Glen Mills (former coach to Usain Bolt) alongside former European champion over 100m, Zharnel Hughes, who currently tops the UK rankings over 200m and is ranked second over the 100m . 'We have a good family support system in Jamaica, and Rechmial has gained a great deal from training there, but still it has been a very different experience for him and a massive commitment, so I'm really proud of the way he has stuck with it', says Paul. 'Chad too, had a difficult lockdown, changing coaches and being just outside the elite status needed to keep training on track, but both of them are in great shape now'.