Another huge week in British distance running, Oliver Dustin is looking v.nicey (copyright Lucian Allison) in Nice, Dever wins the NCAA title, and Butchart sets a BMC record.Matthew Clowes been here there and everywhere (Thinks he's Will Smith from Seven Pounds), but hopefully has a plan to recovery after seeing the doc.Josh Lunn is back at peak levels of excitement following a couple of half decent sessions. If anyone wants to take over our WhatsApp chat for us then feel free, as myself and Matt don't have the time to respond to his incessant messaging.While Aaron Scott bagged his podcast head-to-head win if he simply toes the line in Leeds. He's been suffering with hayfever, and generally feeling pretty tired thanks to Dad life.No interview this week, but we will try to go in depth into a couple of listener questions, and we will be back with a big interview next week. Have a distinctly average week people, and enjoy the pod.

NCAAs

The week started in an exciting way when Patrick Dever won the NCAA 10,000m final in Eugene with a stunning performance. Six athletes were still in the running with 200m to go but Patrick Dever absolutely smashed the last 50 meters to finish in a winning time of 27:41.87. That puts him 15th all time in Britain and is a huge 46 seconds faster than his existing PB.

Charles Hicks placed seventh and another big PB of 27:47.63 breaking Dave Bedfords British teen-best of 28:24.4 which was set in 1969. Poppy Tank made sure it wasn’t just the gents setting new bests, as she ran 32:50.57 for ninth in her 10000m final.

Meeting International de Nice 

Revee Walcott-Nolan ran a PB of 4:06.28 to place second in the 1500m and in the mens 1500m George Mills was seventh in 3:37.00. Earlier in the week Mills had been at the WA Continental Tour Bronze meet in Prague and ran a 3:36.42 for fourth place.

Eilish McColgan was racing again, running herself a 5,000m second place finish in a time of 14:55.79. She now has the Olympic qualifying time for 1500, 5000 and 10,000!

In the men’s 5000m it was great to see Jonny Davies clocking a fine 13:21.56, a performance hat has gone under the radar a bit this week but which was a near 10 second PB for the former European u/23 XC Champion.

Mark Pearce was in action in the chase running a big PB of 8:25.43, another athlete coached by Luke Gunn delivering top results.

In shorter news but absolutely the jaw-dropping moment of the week was Oliver Dustin’s (Border AC) performance of 1:43.82 over 800m which secured him the title of European U20 champion and 6th place on the UK all time list.

Issey Boffey was in action in the women’s 800m running 2:05.53.

Meeting Pro Athlé Tour de Marseille

Charlie De-vall Grice cut down his distance to 800 where he clocked 1:45.63.

At the same meet, Elliot Giles went the other way and ran the 1500 where he was 2nd in 3:33.80, Piers Copeland ran 3:34.62 which is his first OT, Jake Heyward continued his fine form with 3:34.63 also with George Mills running 3:36.

Butchart breaks BMC best

Andy Butchart put in a strong contender for performance of the night, setting a BMC record over 3000m to win his race in 7:43.57, beating Jack Rowe’s PB run of 7:49.71

The men’s 5000m was PBs all the way for the podium placers – it was won by U23 Isaac Akers in 13:47.31, followed by Ellis Cross in 13:50.53 and Daniel Jarvis in 13:55.02. In the B race there was a breakthrough performance from welshman Osian Perrin who was first in the u20 5000m in 13:53.20 and set a new Welsh junior record.

The women’s 5000m had a strong lineup of new and very experienced talent, including one Jo Pavey who took to the track for the first time in three years. With Euro u/23 places up for grabs youth won out here too though with the U23s claiming the top three spots and new PBs in the process thanks to Izzy Fry with 15:49.25, Charlotte Dannatt with 16:06.70 and Naomi Land in 16:09.13.

 

On the roads, The City of Norwich Half Marathon was back with Natasha Cockram winning in 1