IN his first 1500m of the year, Swindon Harriers track star Al Virgilio smashed his personal best to claim victory at the Bracknell Track & Field Open meeting at the weekend.

Virgilio, who is coached by Kevin Buttle, clocked a time of four minutes and 28 seconds to slash virtually nine seconds off the time he set on his debut at the distance last summer.

“Al is a 400m and 800m runner and not a long-distance man, but a senior coach told us to open the season with a 1500m to see how the fitness is going,” explained Buttle.

In the same race, clubmate Alex Leake dipped inside five minutes for the first time, slashing 15 seconds off his best with 4:55.22.

There was also a PB for Ben Charlesworth in the 800m (2:26.81) while sister Ellie, who is coached by Debbie Gunning, ran a PB of 4:22.17 in the 1200m and also won the javelin with 23.24m.

Sprinter Ella Nicholls ran PBs of 14.03secs and 29.32secs in the U15 girls 100m and 200m, respectively.

Ben Janes, who is coached by Howard Moscrop, also enjoyed the conditions posting a legal PB of 13.30secs in the 100m and then clocking a marginally windy lifetime best of 27.33secs in the 200m.

Hamish Murray and Olly Hughes ran the 1200m for the first time, finishing close together, while Charissa Griffiths-Clack tackled the 150m, 600m and 1200m. Holly Scott won the U15s’ three-kg hammer event with 35.03m.

Elsewhere, in the National Primary Schools’ Cross Country Championships at Loughborough, Dylan Necrews and Finley Kuklinski finished 62nd and 79th, respectively.

Meanwhile, Harriers sisters Delleah and Laila-Jae Belgrave defied the awful weather to both record PBs of 18.87secs and 19.08secs respectively in the 150m in the Mark Cawte Memorial meeting at the County Ground last week.

Tye Leo-Stroud also recorded a PB of 18.46secs, clipping 0.17secs off his 2021 best while Howard Moscrop’s talented group impressed with PBs for Elliot Cox, Poppy Abercrombie and Ben Janes among others.

But massive kudos to the athletes and officials who ensured this special meeting, inaugurated to honour the memory of club stalwart Mark Cawte, went ahead.

There were plenty of personal bests to mark the final meeting of the Swindon Harriers Winter Throws Series with Archie Kinneir, Oakley Hogan and Lottie Harding all claiming three apiece to show that their winter training regimes have been going really well.

Junior Sam Innes has already improved by over two metres in the javelin since last summer as he threw the 800g implement 44.65m.