Philippa Stone and Lewis Jagger ran the fastest parkrun times in the UK this weekend (25th March).
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Another busy weekend of parkrun sees two more athletes top our rankings with two men under 15 minutes and two women under 17.
Philippa Stone was the fastest female at Albert parkrun, Middlesborough with a 16:50 effort in the north-east of England. The cross country specialist has had a stellar 2023 so far with a second at the Northerns, 10th at the National Cross and a fourth at the Cross Cup Diest in Belgium.
Jagger, who runs for Sheffield & Deane, as well as North West Missouri, clocked a strong 14:41 air Market Rasen Racecourse parkrun. With a 14:03 5k PB from last year to go with 29:03 10k from 2022, it can’t be long until Jagger brings his lucky number 3 into his parkrun best as well. Will it be 14:3x, 14:23, 14:13 or 13:xx. Anything is possible.
The rest of the bunch
The other female runner under 17 minutes was Innes Fitzgerald of Exeter, with 16:57 at Seaton parkrun. Somewhat incredibly this is going to be Fitzgerald’s first time not being on the top spot in five events this year (and even then it’s a tennis second as she was first finisher at her event and it’s a parkrun top 10, not a race). That fine run of results has seen U20 victories at South West Schools, South West regionals and National Cross country as well as two cross events in Belgium at CrossCup Hannut and Cross Cup Diest. Wowzers.
Milan Campion, of Notts AC, ran 14:57 at Long Eaton parkrun and that’s a hefty parkrun PB of 17 seconds. It’s not surprise though as Campion has already got himself a shiny new 10k PB of 30:18 at Trafford 10K in March after some excellent cross country performances at Midlands and National’s too.
AFD’s Nancy Scott was the third fastest this weekend with 17:24 at Bushy parkrun, the home of parkrun in SW London. The 2023 Surrey county XC champ continues the theme of cross country runners have a belting weekend at parkrun. The question now is, does Ben Davies keep the ball rolling? The third fastest chap in 15:18 was at the same parkrun as Philippa Stone with Albert parkrun. The Bedford and County star is another XC star, having run for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala, Uganda.
The fastest course?
Really the winner this week is the British cross country scene, producing fast runners left, right and centre. But the parkrun event that featured most often this Saturday was… I think… a four way tie between Albert parkrun Middlesbrough, Long Eaton parkrun, Victoria parkrun, Glasgow and Scunthorpe, all with two. Albert parkrun takes it though, with first and third adding up to four in total.