The Night of the Fifteen 1500s, co-hosted by Belgrave and neighbours Herne Hill Harriers at Battersea Park, saw some top quality racing and the two fastest times run on British soil this year.

The two final races of the night featured prize money in memory of Bill Laws, our late club president.

They were won by Liverpool Harriers’ Joe Wigfield and Guildford’s Adelle Tracey, both scoring PBs of 3:40.85 and 4:07.47 respectively. Nobody on has gone faster on a British track this year.

The fastest Belgravians on the night were Matt Welsh (4:07.95 PB) and brand new Belgravian Genevieve Gregson (4:09.95) who finished second in the women’s elite race.

The races

The first Belgrave runners appeared in the second race of the night in the form of James Morris, Mimi Corden-Lloyd and our U17 runner Palmer Newson. James was beaming with confidence as he took to the track. His convincing win in a PB performance will have done very little to dampen that for him! Just 5s behind him was Mimi who also ran a PB but was just under 1s shy of second place. This was Palmer’s first outing over 1500 and she should be very pleased. Now that she’s gotten a taste for the event this can only get faster!

Ben Ireland, who has been working hard to return to fitness following a niggle in his hip, also won his race in a tight sprint finish against Croydon’s Dan Hill. Behind him, a fierce battled unfolded between two of Charlie’s Angels - Steph Hewitt and Orna McGinley! In the end, Steph narrowly took the win only half a second ahead of Orna, but both claimed PBs on the night. At the back of the pack, Natalie Beadle put down her first ever time on Power of 10. We hope to see much more of Natalie before next summer when she will likely be involved in her own friendly skirmishes.

Race #4 was won by Croydon’s Luke Hill, but what followed was promising Belgrave juniors, the fastest of whom was Lucas Ebert. However, between Lucas and the chasers - Maddy Whitman and Seb Cockerell - was V45 Will Cockerell who just had to spoil the party for his son. Maddy ran some fantastic races for the senior team last year and Seb is always improving, as shown by this first time under 5mins.

The friendly fire kept rolling into the fifth race where Will Johnson and Pat McDougall stared each other down once again. Will had denied Pat the win at the Lockdown Burnup event by unleashing a ferocious kick down the final home straight… and he ruddy well did it again! The Geordie just missed out on a sub 4:40 but both he and Pat raked in a shiny new PB.

Conall McNally hadn’t run a 1500m for a few years, so it was time to update his PB. How about 20s off? Sound good? He is one of the most promising new recruits in our senior men’s squad and it fantastic to see him fully recovered from Covid after months of struggling with lung scarring. He was a few seconds off the win but damn that 4:25 must have felt good (obviously not during…). Rob Norville, the wily veteran, also impressed with an SB of 4:33 which is his fastest performance since 2014! Newcomer Michelle Pearson made her mark on the club with a 9:41 3000m debut in August, and she was clearly keen to keep her reputation intact. She was a few seconds ahead of Rob and snuck just under 4:30.

Race 8 hosted a real nail-biter: Alex Mills vs Nick Buckle vs David Walsh! They might have been all the way at the back of the pack, but don’t get it twisted - this was the race that really mattered. The Irishman ended up pipping Buckle in a PB of 4:22 while Alex finished in 4:25, also a PB.

You will have heard rumours of Christian Smith. Maybe you will have seen his name in one of the virtual race reports during lockdown. Is he a real man? Allegedly, yes. There was a man at Battersea claiming to be Christian Smith. He pinned on his number a 4:21 1500m time. Conspiracy theorists claim this was actually an elaborate hologram, otherwise claim it was Bigfoot. The truth is out there…

Matt Welsh and Callum Stewart were next. While Matt is a seasoned and tactical track pony, Callum had never raced on the track before. However, his form over 5km and XC suggested he would fare very well. It was a hard-fought battle, but he grasped a fantastic 4:11 debut. Matt once again executed a brilliant race and just missed out on a 3rd place.

In the men’s B race, the Lion Paskar Owor was facing some extremely fast competition. After a lighting fast first lap, he started to lag behind the pack slightly. The man had taken a proper break from training during lockdown and had only started frequenting the track again a few weeks prior to this meet. He was experiencing quite the shock to the system. Now that he is back in the rhythm, we hope he will be his usual reliable, undoubtable, confident, effective and point-scoring self.

Finally, it was the time for the elite races. Our newest recruit Geneviève Gregson (née Lacaze) was one of the night’s real headliners alongside Adelle Tracey, Revee Walcott-Nolan and Ellie Baker, and she had her eyes on the prize… The Australian steeplechase record holder and double Olympian (yes, you read that right) ran a fantastic race but didn’t quite have the legs in the final 100m to tame Tracey, a true 800m specialist. However, she did dip under 4:10 for the first time in her career!

What a day to be a Belgrave Harrier

This event was yet another reason to be a proud Bel or Belle. The Lockdown Burnup put us on the map and the whole country took notice; it is possible to run COVID-safe races with fast times. This Night of the 1500s proved that the first time wasn’t a fluke, and the whole country noticed once again. Attracting international superstars to our elite races was one thing, but garnering such strong support from within our own club and our local rivals (we still hate them, by the way) is really what made this such a success. A fantastic evening and a strong sign that there is much more to come!

Results

Matt Welsh - 4:07.95 (PB)

Geneviève Gregson - 4:09.40 (PB)

Callum Stewart - 4:11.40 (PB)

Paskar Owor - 4:18.83

Christian Smith - 4:21.18 (PB)

David Walsh - 4:22.42 (PB)

Nick Buckle - 4:23.68

Conall McNally - 4:25.27 (PB)

Alex Mills - 4:25.53 (PB)

Michelle Pearson - 4:29.90 (PB)

Rob Norville - 4:33.83

Will Johnson - 4:40.54 (PB)

Lucas Ebert - 4:44.27 (PB)

Ben Ireland - 4:45.30 (PB)

Patrick Mcdougall - 4:45.37 (PB)

Will Cockerell - 4:52.63

Maddy Whitman - 4:55.26

Stephanie Hewitt - 4:56.10 (PB)

Orna McGinley - 4:56.90 (PB)

Seb Cockerell - 4:58.96 (PB)

James Morris - 5:03.00 (PB)

Mimi Corden-Lloyd - 5:08.90 (PB)

Natalie Beadle - 5:23.80 (PB)

Palmer Newson - 5:40.10 (PB)

Full results are available on Opentrack.

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