Swindon Harriers runner Harry Woods has become the top-ranked under-20 Wiltshire male runner after setting a blistering personal best in the 3000 metres.
At the Swindon Harriers Under The Lights 3000m, Woods obliterated his previous best time at the distance, knocking almost eight seconds off to record a time of 8:49.34 seconds as he finished runner-up in the event behind clubmate Simon Byrne.
There were several impressive performances from Harriers runners, as junior Fetcher Hart finished in a sub-nine minute time and took 18 seconds off his personal best in his first event at this distance of the season with a time of 8:51.92 in third.
Coach John Dill said: “It was a really successful night.
“At this time of year to get that number of entries and also have that level of quality in the main race, with the top four under nine minutes and the first woman Bea Wood running a PB (9:26.71) was terrific.
“Racing conditions were perfect with no wind, so we saw lots of personal bests from a big contingent representing the club.”
There were also massive improvements on personal best times for Harry Edwards and teenager Anubis Molina-Zekri, running over half a minute and 13 seconds better than ever before respectively.
The fastest female Harrier was Ella Spencer, who was runner-up to Theo Cinnamond (10:04.89) in the D race clocking 10:10.55 while behind her Eloise Foster, coached by Bryan Clinton, ran a massive PB improving from 10:57.90 on her debut in the Mark Cawte Memorial Spring Open in March to a super time of 10:25.59.
The Harriers pair are now the first- and second-fastest in the u17 category in Wiltshire after another set of strong performances.
In the C race, there were personal bests for the winner of the race Reuben Linscott, as well as Ben Charlesworth, and Harry Burdekin.
B race winner Archie Richardson improved his PB to 11:24.61. In third Freya Davidse made her debut over this distance at this same meeting a year ago clocking 12:33.26 and having not run a race of this distance since then returned to carve off more than 30 seconds from that with 12:00.53.
Racing the distance for the first time teenager Toby Wood won the A race (11:24.61) and behind him, there were also fine efforts from Molly Lyne (12:26.15) and Thea Scobey (13:17.95), both of whom were also making their debuts in the event.
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