Keith and Cairess Crowned British Champions in the 10,000

Megan Keith and Emile Cairess were crowned British Champions at this year’s UK 10,000m Championships, rounding off  the festival of athletics at the University of Birmingham.

Megan Keith retained her British title with a time of 31:19.33, coming in second behind guest racer Elisa Palmero from Italy, who ran a personal best to take the win.

Earlier, Calli Hauger-Thackery had led out the front group just days after running under the UKA World Championship qualifying standard of 30:50.64 at the Oslo Diamond League. Keith, Izzy Fry, Abbie Donnelly and two Italians, Palmero and Federica Del Buono made up the rest of the leading pack. Phoebe Anderson paced the chaser pack for the Euro Under-23 qualification standard time of 33:55.

With 14 laps to go, the pace picked up, which saw Del Buono and Donnelly drop ofrom the group. Hauger-Thackery led with Palmero and Keith on her shoulder, with Fry still in pursuit as they hit 11 laps.

The Italian Palmero pushed forward, with Keith staying close on her shoulder. Cheered on by the crowd on the track as they passed three laps, Keith overtook the Italian, and it was a battle between the two over the last 800m for the race win.

Palmero won the race with a new personal best of 31:18.88, with Keith a close second with a 31:19.88 time to retain her British title. Hauger-Thackery took the second British spot 31:24.21, and Izzy Fry was the third British to cross the line 31:47.60 – an impressive UK Championship debut from the Newbury athlete.

In the men’s race, Emile Cairess, set a new personal best time of 27:27.95 to become British champion. Ellis Cross claimed the British silver medal with a time of 28:14.47, whilst Fife athlete Logan Rees took the third spot with a time of 28:52.25.

In the early stages of the race, Cairess, Ellis Cross, Zakariya Mahamed, and Irish athlete Efrem Gidey stretched away to create the lead pack. With 12 laps to go, Cairess took the lead as the field spread out. Gidey pushed hard to try and chase the Leeds athlete but couldn’t reduce the margin, finishing behind him in second place.

Followed by Cross third over the line and fellow Irish runner Jack O’Leary in fourth, running a personal best.

In the men’s B race, Matthew Ramsden claimed the top spot with a personal best time of 29:16.07, followed closely by Dafydd Jones with 29:18.60, both running under the Euro U23 UKA selection time of 29:20.00. Tom Butler took the third spot in a personal best time of 29:31.47.

View the complete list of results here.  

Photo credit Graham C Smith