Abbie Donnelly and Chris Rainsford ran the fastest parkrun times in the UK this weekend (4th March).
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Another parkrun masterclass this weekend from Abbie Donnelly, this time at Yarborough Leisure Centre.The Lincoln Wellington AC athlete ran 15:54 and, in a very rare occurrence, such a fast run isn’t a parkrun PB! Last year Donnelly ran 15:52, a whole two seconds faster, at Doddington Hall parkrun in March. Alongside some excellent parkrunning, we also saw Donnelly represent Great Britain & NI at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia where she finished 24th.
The fastest chap this weekend wasn’t quite as fast, relatively speaking, but we still saw a sub fifteen minute showing. Chris Rainsford ran 14:58 at Dulwich parkrun in south-east London. Rainsford led two other runners into our top 10 this weekend at Dulwich park. It’s a long overdue parkrun PB update for the 2:21 marathoner who has run 14:18 for 5000m on the track!
The rest of the podium
Normally running under 17 minutes is enough to put you atop of the women’s rankings, especially a time as quick as 16:38 by Sarah McDonald. At Walsall Arboretum, a fast parkrun in the midlands, the Birchfield Harrier (who needs to update her club on the parkrun website) showed why she is a multiple times British International and National Champion both indoors and outside.
In the same neck of the woods it was Kristian Imroth who was second fastest male athlete with 15:02. The Shaftesbury and Barnet Harrier ran at Cannon Hill, Birmingham. The U23 has a 5k PB of 14:30 and last year set new PBs over 800m (1:54.43) and 1500m (3:47.38).
Tessa McCormick clocked 16:42 to finish third on the list at Peel parkrun and Jason Cann showed a can-do attitude to run 15:03 at Morecambe Prom parkrun.
The fastest course
The three runners at Dulwich parkrun, with Rainsford leading home Gary Laybourne and Dale Seddon, were enough to make Dulwich the fastest event this weekend. Seddon is in training for the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100k after being selected for England and has recently run a PB over 5k of 14:53 so a new parkrun PB by four seconds is no surprise.
Women’s rankings
Men’s Rankings