Several of Bedford & County’s finest runners made the trip down to Ipswich on Saturday evening to contest the Ipswich Twilight 5k which incorporated the England Athletics 5k road championships.
The quick, flat course along with a stacked field suggested fast times could be on the cards and Bedford’s athletes delivered.
First across the line for Bedford in the Senior Men’s race was Ireland international Matt Bergin who revised his personal best on the road with a blistering 13:46 clocking to finish fifth, a time even faster than he’s ever managed on the track.
Next up was 20-year-old Ben Davies who produced the run of his life to finish 13th in 14:01 and knock 21 seconds off the time he had set in February at the Armagh International.
Bens’ time puts him 3rd on the all-time UK list for 5k and bodes well as he open his track season on Wednesday evening.
Completing the scoring trio was Matt Bray who was another to rewrite his personal best running 14:33 to finish 25th.
These three performances saw Bedford & County finish third in the team standings behind Leeds City and Aldershot Farnham & District AC.
Bergin said of the race: “I honestly had no idea what pace we were running at. I sat off early and then as the race wore on people dropped off and I was feeling good.
“The last kilometre it really got moving and I was hanging on but I’m delighted with the race and the time.”
Just 10 seconds behind Bray was Josh Lunn who knocked a big chunk off his road personal best to run 14:43, equalling the best time he’s run on the track.
Jono Janes was the final Bedford & County athlete to finish in a fantastic time of 15:02.
In the Senior Women’s race sole Bedford & County representative Rebecca Murray ran superbly to finish 4th in 16:00.
This represented a huge personal best for Rebecca as she finished agonisingly close to the individual medals.
