St Mary’s Athletes Break Personal Records at Athletics Events

Students and Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) athletes at St Mary’s University, Twickenham earned eight top three finishes and a host of Personal Bests (PB) at two athletics meets over the weekend.

The Night of 10,000m PBs, which incorporated the British 10,000m Championships and the European 10,000m Cup for the first time, saw a number of St Mary’s representatives pick up impressive results.

In the Men’s A race of the event, which took place in Highgate, North London, EPACC athletes Andy Vernon and Chris Thompson picked up Silver and Bronze respectively in the British 10,000m Championships after finishing sixth and seventh in the overall Night of 10,000m PBs event, in which sport scholar Ellis Cross earned a PB after finishing in 28:47.51. Andy’s podium finish and time of 27:52.56 has secured his place in Team GB’s squad for the European Athletics Championships, which take place in Berlin in August.

In the Women’s A race, all three of St Mary’s EPACC athletes earned PBs with Philippa Bowden finishing fifth, Louise Small seventh and Emelia Gorecka 11^th. Philippa’s and Louise’s strong performances earned them a Silver and Bronze in the British 10,000m Championships.

Elsewhere in the Night of 10,000m PBs, current student Chris Law picked up Gold in the Men’s F race, earning a PB of 32:00.15 in the process, while Luke Prior also registered a PB with a time of 30:37.95 in the Men’s C race, finishing 13^th.

On Sunday, representatives from St Mary’s picked up five more top three finishes at the Loughborough International.

The Men’s 800m saw a second and third place finish for the University after sport scholar Canaan Solomon followed up his Silver in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Outdoor Track and Field Championships 800m with another second place finish, while earning a PB of 1:48.31, and EPACC athlete Zak Curran came third.

There was also a second place finish in the Women’s 1500m for EPACC athlete Ciara Everard while current students Lilly Coward and Georgie Hartigan came ninth and 12^th respectively.

The final top three finishes for St Mary’s came from sport scholars Emily Moyes and Emily Hosker-Thornhill. Emily Moyes finished third in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase and earned a PB of 10:16.46 in the process, just a couple of weeks after winning Gold at the BUCS Outdoor Track and Field Championships 2000m Steeplechase, while Emily Hosker-Thornhill also came third in the Women’s 3000m after last month’s Gold in the BUCS 10,000m Championships.

Elsewhere, scholar Dan Jarvis finished fourth in the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase while EPACC athlete Ben Bradley came 11^th in the Men’s 3000m.

Director of Sport at St Mary’s Andrew Reid-Smith, said, “Both meets included quality fields and some exceptional performances.  Following on from the BUCS Outdoor Champs it was great to see St Mary’s athletes performing well and figuring highly.  For some there will be further opportunities to run qualifying times and be considered for European Champs selection.”