Age category prizes were still up for grabs in the final race of the Boscombe Winter 5k Series which made for an exciting conclusion, even though some of the main prizes had already been decided. It had been a very successful series from a Bournemouth AC perspective with Rob McTaggart already sealing the overall win after he was victorious in all of the first three races.

The men’s team win had also been sewn up by Bournemouth AC as they had also won all three races. Tag, Hugo Richardson and Rich Brawn did the business in the first two races and in the third race, it was Patrick Kingston who was third scorer to accompany Tag and Hugo.

Lauren Baker-Little of Poole Runners had already made her mark and claimed the female prize with three wins out of three but Bournemouth AC star Emily Coltman was in the driving seat to claim 2nd place. She’d also already confirmed her win in the Female 15-19 age category.

The most tightly contested of all the age categories was the Male 15-19 one, with Andrew Ingleton of City of Salisbury, Oscar Newbery of Winchester and Sean Harnett of New Forest all vying for it, along with Hugo.

Will Newbery of New Forest had already effectively taken first prize in the Male 40-44 category although Rich Brawn could have caught him on points if he’d won the category in the last race. He would have had to have beaten Will’s time of 16:58 though and that didn’t look likely.

Barry Miller of Poole AC could also still deny Rich the 2nd prize if he had a bad run in the last race and finished well down the pecking order. Again though, it didn’t look likely.

Patrick Kingston was in the hunt for a prize in the Male 45-49 category but faced competition from Simon Richardson for second prize. Westbourne man Pete Doughty had already claimed the category win.

Even though he’d already won the series, Tag wanted to go for a historic quadruple so he was back on the start line again for race four, dashing anyone else’s hope of stealing a win.

He had to run faster than he had in any of his previous attempts to do it though, crossing the line in 15:54 in the end to sign off the only sub 16 of the series. Andrew Ingleton put in an excellent performance to take 2nd place in 16:05 and that was enough to seal the hotly contested Male 15-19 category win and book him 2nd place in the series overall.

Also weighing in with a tremendous run, Oscar Newbery snatched 3rd place overall in the series with a PB of 16:13. That was enough to earn him 2nd prize in the Male 15-19 category. His average pace for the run was a phenomenal 5:12.

Perhaps the unluckiest man not to win an individual prize was Hugo Richardson. He arrived just three seconds after Oscar to secure a very impressive new PB of 16:16. That put him in 4th place overall for the series but because he was also in the Male 15-19 category, he didn’t get a prize for that.

Nevertheless, it underlined what huge strides he’s been making recently and what a bright future he has ahead of him if he continues to train the way he is now. His average pace for the run was 5:14.

Having already sealed 2nd place in the Male 20-39 category, Matt Brown of Littledown Harriers went and saved his best for last, clocking a time of 16:46 which put him in 5th place. That put him in 7th place for the series, behind Sean Harnett and Will Newbery.

Michel Godfrey of Wimborne AC was the top man not to complete three of the four races. He only did two of them but finished 6th in race four in a time of 17:16. He was followed by Joe Godden of Poole Runners who put in easily his best performance of the series to take 7th place in 17:20.

Since he hadn’t done any competitive running yet this year and hadn’t really been training as regularly as usual due to a knee injury, Rich Brawn wasn’t sure how it was going to go. But he wanted that bottle of wine.

Surprisingly he managed to produce his best run of the series though, getting to the line in 17:30 to secure 8th place and confirm 2nd place in the 40-44 category. His rival for that, Barry Miller was the next man over the line, taking 9th place in 17:46. Rich and Barry also finished 8th and 9th in the series overall.

Even though she’d already won the first three races and claimed the women’s series win, Lauren Baker-Little, like Tag, wanted to go for the quadruple. She delivered on that, finishing in 19 minutes exactly which put her in 17th place overall.

Simon Richardson did finish ahead of Patrick Kingston in race four, clicking a time of 19:49 which put him in 26th place. Patrick arrived in 29th position, registering a time of 20:13. That was enough to put them equal for 2nd place in the 45-49 category but Patrick got the prize by virtue of recording the fastest time, which was 18:50.

Vicky Rutter of Westbourne was 2nd female in 20:45 which put her in 34th place overall and she was six seconds ahead of Emily Coltman who was 3rd female and 35th overall in 20:51.

That was enough to clinch 2nd place female overall for Emily and it was her fastest race of the series as well, rounding off a very successful one from her perspective. She came 39th in the overall standings for the series.

The next Bournemouth AC member over the line was Joe Price. He clocked a time of 21:36 which put him in 41st place in race four. That was his highest placed finish of the series and put him 46th in the overall standings for the series.

Although he didn’t run in the last fixture, Neil Smith of Bournemouth AC was 46th overall, with his fastest time being 20:51.

Finishing as 7th placed female in race four, Tamzin Petersen ran her third fastest ever 5k, registering a time of 21:46. That meant she was 8th placed woman in the series as a whole and came 44th in the overall standings.

Recording his quickest run of the series, Simon Hunt got over the line in 23:24 which put him in 56th place for race four and 2nd in the 65-69 category. For the series overall, he was 3rd in the Male 65-69 category and 67th in the overall standings.

Having already done three races, Nikki Whittaker opted not to take part in race four but she did come along to support and had a meal with Tag in the pub afterwards when they were giving out the prizes. She was 19th placed female overall and 87th in the overall standings.

That was it from a Bournemouth AC perspective as Trev Elkins, Paddy McCalister and Ian Graham only did two races each and Adam Corbin and Dave Parsons only did one each.

In terms of the teams, it was a fourth win out of four for the Bournemouth AC men’s team, with Tag, Hugo and Rich once again the scoring three. New Forest Runners were 2nd placed men’s team, with Littledown Harriers and Poole Runners finishing 3rd and 4th on the same points.

That meant Hugo did finally get a prize after all as he was part of the winning team. The only problem was that the prize for that was a box of beer and he is sadly too young to drink it.

The team winners were decided over all four races and because Bournemouth AC didn’t have a team of three women in the final fixture, they slipped down to 4th place. Poole Runners picked up the win with Bournemouth Joggers 2nd and Verwood Runners 3rd.

The atmosphere in the Neptune pub after the fourth race was buzzing as the prizes were given out and seeing so many runners attend underlined what a hugely well received event it had been.

The organisation by Mike Towner and Poole Runners had been absolutely top notch, even though they had some unforeseen issues to deal with along the way. The third race of the series of course had to be postponed after a stretch of lights along the promenade had gone out, plunging part of the route into darkness. They managed to reschedule it though, allowing for all four races to be executed in the end.

After so many successes, the Bournemouth AC contingent who took part will certainly be hoping the series gets staged again next year as it was wonderful for them to have a set of midweek, evening races with a competitive field, right on their doorstep.