Being contested over a shorter distance, the 5k race at the Bournemouth Bay Run gives some of the Bournemouth AC‘s younger members the chance to take centre stage. Finley Hurst Atkins, Aiden Blagden and Callum Pearson were amongst those to give it go in a race where they would square off against many adults of a high standard as well as peers from other clubs.

Doing just that in the Maverick New Forest event earlier in the year, Finley Hurst Atkins fared pretty well finishing third in that race, just behind his teammate Jacob Taylor. Finley has had success in Bournemouth based road races before, winning the 2k race at the Run Bournemouth event in October for two consecutive years. He also topped the standings in his age group at the Upton Summer Series for two consecutive years as well and finished 6th overall in the Junior standings.

Progressing well of late, Aiden Blagden had got his parkrun time down to 19:05 which was pretty quick for an Under 15. He finished 22nd in the 5k race at the Bournemouth Bay Run last year in a time of 21:39.

Callum Pearson was another one who had been impressing of late and his parkrun PB was now 18:40, showing he has some real potential to work with. He completed at the Southern Cross Country Championships, the Nationals and the National Inter County Championships as well so he wasn’t afraid to put himself in the firing line on a tough course.

Some of the more senior members of the Bournemouth AC fraternity were there as well including Luke De-Benedictis and Bradley Pickup. Luke usually does Poole parkrun in around 16:45 so he would likely be in contention to win the Bournemouth Bay Run 5k. He’d won the Maverick Hampshire ‘Short’ race a couple of weeks prior as well and really seems to excel in an off-road setting.

Formerly a very talented long jumper, Bradley Pickup was well capable of sub 19 minute time over 5k. He did the Half Marathon at last year’s Bournemouth Bay Run event, completing the course in 1:34:37.

The 5k race was basically a straightforward out and back along the promenade from Bournemouth Pier to just past Boscombe Pier and then back again.

Just like in the 10k, in spite of all the Bournemouth AC talent on show, it was a Poole AC star who stole the show. In this instance, that was Theo Cobley who is a ferociously fast youngster. He completed the course in 16:47 which was enough to see him get to the line 18 seconds before Luke De-Benedictis.

Luke went out hard with a 5:11 for his first mile split. He then followed that up with a 5:39 and a 5:42 which took him to the finish in 17:05. He was 30 seconds ahead of Matthew Taylor who took third spot in 17:35.

Former Bournemouth AC man Trev Elkins finished fourth in 17:54 after doing Poole parkrun the previous day in 17:26.

There wasn’t must to choose between Finley Hurst Atkins and Aiden Blagden but Finley shaded it in the end, taking sixth place in a brilliant new PB time of 18:24.

Aiden went over the line five seconds later to secure a well-earned PB for him as well of 18:29. It was great to see the two Bournemouth AC runners bringing the best out of each other and both coming away with their fastest times yet.

Unfortunately the race didn’t pan out quite so well for Callum Pearson. He started to feel sick after the first kilometre and it went downhill for him from that point on. He still ended up sneaking into the top ten though with his time of 19:30 but it was frustrating for him as he knew he’s capable of better.

Bradley Pickup went out pretty hard with a 5:41 for his first mile. He struggled to maintain those levels though and went through the second mile in 6:11 before slowing to a 7:07 for his third mile. That put his finishing time at 19:45 which was still enough for 12th place so it wasn’t a bad result considering his pacing could have been judged better.

Karla Harding was first female, clocking a time of 19:56 which saw her cross the line just after Bradley in 13th place. Imogen Belsey was the next woman in, getting round in 20:08. Kirstin Chavez-Munoz was third lady and first F45 in 22:15 which put her 23rd overall.

There were 552 runners completing the 5k race in total.

It was encouraging to see some of the younger members of the Bournemouth AC squad taking their chance to shine and they will no doubt go on progress to faster times and better results as they continue on their running journeys.