Swindon Harriers official

JESSE Bryant produced a fantastic effort in the British Milers Club MarketAxess Tooting Bec Record Breaker meeting last night.

The 15-year-old, who is coached by John Dill, smashed his PB by over one second improving from 1:59.15, which he ran at the start of the season in the BMC PB Classic at Millfield School, to 1:57.99.

That gave Jesse third place in the I race on another night of top class middle-distance running.

Jesse has also run PBs over the mile (4:28.72) and the 1500m steeplechase (4:26.60) but his 2025 PB in the 1500m of 4:07.46 has eluded him - so far!

Also in the 800m Finley Byrne’s PB remains 1:57.34 from the Millfield meeting in May as he clocked 1:58.92 in the H race.

Just ahead of him last night was clubmate Fletcher Hart finishing in 1:57.92, which is outside his 2025 PB of 1:56.91.

At the start of the month Matt Woodward set a cracking PB of 3:47.91 at the BMC Grand Prix at St Mary’s University but last night he had to settle for 3:50.83, another solid performance.

But Simon Byrne posted his fastest time of the season with 3:51.34 for third place in the F race. That is also his fastest time since he recorded his lifetime best of 3:48.47 three years ago so great to see Simon finish the season so strongly.

Men’s 800 - H: 5 Fletcher Hart (U23) 1:57.92; 7 Finley Byrne (U16) 1:58.92; I: 3 Jesse Bryant (U16) 1:57.99 (PB).

Men’s 1500 - E: 4 Matt Woodward 3:50.83; F: 3 Simon Byrne (M35) 3:51.34.

WELL done to teenager Olly Hughes for his success in the recent Westbury 5k Road Summer Series.
Olly clinched the overall prize for U16 men based on his best three performances with the 15-year-old clocking 17mins 31secs (May), 17:28 (June) and 17:36 last week.
Olly has also run a PB in the 5k this year with 17:17 in the RunThrough Olympic park event in March.

OUR relay women ended the Southern League in superb style in the recent final match at Bromley.
The quartet of Delleah Belgrave, Amelia Brandon, Laila Belgrave and Reka Carr not only won the 4x100m event to add valuable points to ensure our Division One status but also broke the club record.
Subject to official confirmation their winning time of 50.37secs is the quickest recorded by a Harriers team, eclipsing the time of 51 seconds set seven years ago by Hilda Williams, Lydia Rogers, Hannah New and Teresa Iannetelli at Wi******er.
It was a great performance by the women and symbolised the fantastic effort by the team as they finished fourth in that final match to beat rivals Victorian Park and Tower Hamlets.
Both clubs ended the league season locked together on nine league points but our total points tally of 848.8 was superior to their 829 - and means we stay up while they are joined by City of Norwich, Havering and Epsom & Ewell in Division Two next season.

LUCY Morrison’s preparations for the Berlin Marathon at the end of next month look like they are proceeding very nicely.

Today she managed to churn out a personal best 10k in the Lightning Bolt race at Langley Burrell - squeezed in after a decent warm-up and then a long warm-down!

“I am building up for Berlin so went with Ben Cole and James McGough of the Harriers and first we did a six miles warm-up,” said Lucy.

“Then we did the race and afterwards an eight miles warm-down so a good 20 miles in total.”

A decent day’s training then for the trio with Ben looking at the Valencia marathon in December and James the Amsterdam marathon in October.

“I was very happy with my personal best of 35mins 58.9secs,” added Lucy.

“It is a good confidence boost.”

Lucy’s previous PB of 36:34 was set in February at the RunThrough Battersea Park event so the was her first time under 36 minutes.

She recently completed the Outlaw Triathlon, in Nottingham, but sadly the swim section was cancelled due to algae issues in the water so became just a duathlon.

Ben ran as an official pacer for the event organisers with the goal of running inside 35 minutes. Ben did his job crossing the line in 34:51.

James, who is a newcomer to the club, finished 18th in a PB time 35:10 so congratulations to him as well.

TEENAGER Eloise Foster finished first woman in the final race of the Westbury 5k Summer Road Series.

The 18-year-old, who is coached by Bryan Clinton, clocked a time of 17mins 21secs to finish almost a minute clear of her nearest rival.

It was Eloise’s fastest time of the summer in the Sris having previously recorded 17:53 in May and 18:26 in June.

In the men’s race Michael Passmore finished sixth overall and third veteran over 40 in 16:16.

Fellow Harriers Aaron Smith and David Sirrelle clocked 17:10 and 17:16 respectively with junior Olly Hughes finishing top U16 runner in 23rd place overall in 17:36.

TERESA Iannetelli has soared into the top 10 of the UK Rankings for 400m hurdles with a stunning personal best.

Teresa not on crashed through the 60 seconds barrier for the first time in the Southern League meeting at Bromley but dipped under 59 seconds with a fantastic time of 58.57secs.

That carved a whopping 2.06secs off her previous best of 60.63secs, which she set when winning the silver medal at the England Athletics Championships last month.

“I did not think I would run a PB like that,” said Teresa.

“I thought I could probably go sub 60 seconds but not under 59 seconds. Going sub 60 was one of my aims for the season and while I knew I was capable of that I wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible this summer as we are getting to the end of the season.”

The time puts Teresa eighth in the UK Rankings. Then to round off a great 24 hours she ran a PB of 54.06secs at the Stratford Speed Grand Prix on Sunday.

“You don’t get many weekends like that!” admitted Teresa.

“It has put me into a good head space going forward and deciding to really give it (the hurdles) a go.”

Teresa said she has plenty of technical aspects to work on with coach Howard Moscrop this winter, in particular her stride pattern.

“Saturday was not the perfect race by any means ,” added Teresa.

“It is nice to be in that position and now I am hoping to maintain that improvement.”

To put Teresa’s achievement into perspective she is less than a second away from moving into the UK top six and less than two seconds away from the top three so the future looks very exciting for her.

LAST week we asked the question to Matt Woodward: Any more personal bests to come this season?

Well, the 31-year-old answered that in emphatic fashion with another PB over 1500m at the final Adidas/sportshoes.com British Milers Club Grand Prix at St Mary’s University last night.

Matt clocked 3mins 47.91secs to finish ninth in the E race, shaving 0.89secs off his previous best set at the BMC GP at Birmingham University in June.

Matt has already run PBs over 800m (1:51.74) and the mile (4:07.43) this summer plus a 31:11 road 10k in Valencia at the start of the year.

Any more in the tank, Matt?

MORE news from the world of 800m running and senior runner Matt Woodward clocked 1min 52.69secs at Watford last night.
Competing in the British Milers Club Gold Standard meeting Matt came eight in race B in a time less than a second of his personal best of 1:51.74 which he set in June.
But it was his second fastest time of a highly successful season with PBs not just over two laps but also in the 1500m (3:48.80, BMC Birmingham Uni in June) - his first time under 3mins 50secs - and the mile (4:07.43, Dave Clarke Extravaganza in July).
And let’s not also forget his PB of 31:11 at the Valencia 10k at the start of the year so a pretty decent year for the 31-year-old. Any more PBs to come Matt?

ALEX Leak has spoken of his sheer delight at joining the sub two minutes club for 800 metres.

The 16-year-old broke the landmark barrier at Aldershot as he smashed his personal best by 1.61secs clocking 1:59.43secs.

“I am very, very happy!” said Alex.

“I was not expecting to run that fast but the main thing for me was that the help Harry (Woods) gave me in the race.

“I followed him and trusted him totally that he was on the right pace.”

Harry took Alex through the bell in low 58seconds and then carried on until the 600m mark before stepping off the track.

“To be honest I just got through that last bit as in the final 50 metres I died, it was very tough,” added Alex.

Alex started the season with a PB 2:02.14 and bettered that in May with 2:01.90.

He then had to wait until July to go quicker and improved his PB twice in seven days clocking 2:01.62 on his home track on July 12th and then ran 2:01.04 a week later in the South West Championships at Exeter.

“I think at the start of the season both I and my coach Kevin (Buttle) thought a sub 2 would have come sooner but I have run incremental PBs,” said Alex.

“But to have gone so much quicker makes it feel even better. Everything had to click and it did.”

OUR CHAIRMAN Howard Moscrop admitted he was handed a stand-out choice for his Member of the Month for July.

Having agonised over his selection for the previous month Howard had no hesitation in handing the award to teenage thrower Jacob Pender.

“For once I found my choice of member of the month a relatively straightforward one,” said Howard.

“When I looked at commitment and performances and then looked at who had not already won my award previously, I had only one athlete left, that is Jacob.

“Jacob has had an excellent season winning the South West Schools hammer at the end of June to qualify for the English Schools in July, where he achieved a fantastic silver medal with a throw of over 50 metres.

“He is currently ranked third in the UK U15 Boys for the hammer.

“Add to that the numerous competitions he has done in July for the club. Jacob competed in the Youth Development League, in Cardiff, winning the hammer and shot and finishing third in the discus.

“Add to that both Wessex YA Leagues on the 5th & 12th July, competing in shot and discus as there is no hammer in those matches.

“Also, bearing in mind that the Wessex League match on the 12th in Bournemouth was the day after the English Schools in Birmingham, he had long journeys one day after another to produce excellent performances.

“So, Jacob Pender is my Member of the Month for July 2026. Great month Jacob.”