Results from festive period races as we move from 2024 to 2025
MIZUNO PODIUM 5km, Battersea Park, London, December 31
Tomer Tarragano just got the better of Thomas Keen, with a 13:49 clocking, as Joseph Tuffin was run out of it in the closing stages.
The trio, together with Jacon Allen, Liam Dee and half a dozen more had been headed for most of the race by Bournemouth’s asylum seeker Abdinasir Elmi, who was timed just after the 1km mark in 2:50, some six seconds clear, and they were still the same amount adrift at the half-way point.
Thereafter, the other chasers began to fall away as the five had closed on Elmi by the 4km mark. Then, Tarragano and Keen, with Tuffin in tow, swept past the tiring leader as, behind, the top 15 all broke 14:30.
Tarragano, the BUCS silver medallist over the country, who had not raced a 5km since 2021, when he ran 14:19, was in new territory here, but it was little surprise following his win in the Euro cross-country Trials and 19th spot in Turkey, that he got the drop here.
Keen was also in new territory with his 13:50 runners-up time, but it was a surprise to see the 1:46.18 800m man headed in a sprint for the line.
Third placed Tuffin was another to crack 14 minutes for the first time while Elmi’s class is already now well known.
The women had their own elite race and Renee Walcott-Nolan, the Paris Olympic Games 1500m semi-finalist, headed Poppy Tank at the line, after the pair had run more or less together throughout, before winning by five seconds in 15:39.
The Reading pair of Mia Waldmann and Jess Gibbon were tracking a few seconds down after just over 1km with half-a-dozen others along for the ride.
However, Walcott-Nolan and Tank had broken clear by the half-way point, before splitting nearer the finish.
This was Walcott-Nolan’s first run on the roads for nearly two years, when a 15:48 ‘under-the-lights’ here in Battersea Park proved to be her personal best until this 15:39. For Tank, the Euro-Cross runner earlier in December, her 15:44 was also a personal best.
More on the event here.
Tom Keen and Tomer Tarragano (Graham Smith)
Elite Men: 1 T Tarragano (B&H) 13:49; 2 T Keen (C&C) 13:50; 3 J Tuffin (BRAT) 13:53; 4 A Elmi (B’mth) 13:55; 5 J Allen (High) 14:01; 6 L Dee (SB) 14:07; 7 B Bradley (AFD) 14:18; 8 D Nolan (Croy) 14:19; 9 F Richardson (C&T) 14:19; 10 C Brisley (NEB) 14:20; 11 J Millar (B&W) 14:21; 12 F Proffitt (Traff) 14:23; 13 J Grace (AFD) 14:24; 14 E Smith-Rasmusson (Newark) 14:29; 15 L Moses (N Levels) 14:30; 16…
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