At Wimbledon on the 23rd of July 2025
The 15 races in the ‘Dave Clarke’ events, had really good Summer evening weather, ideal for the Final event for the ‘Elite’ runners Alastair Aitken reports. The only sub 4 minute miler present was Jeremy Dempsey of Shaftesbury Barnet and. he was the leader at the 1500 mark in 3:44 .83. He continued ahead right till the finish, which he did in 4:01.44 and 2nd was Dominic Nolan of Croydon who finished fast in 4:4:04.64 and Andrew Penney of Tonbridge was 3rd in 4:04.90. The latter two doing personal best times.
DAVE CLARKE, the most durable UK cross country runner in the last 50 years. He had at least 10 years running for England in the World cross country. He did a 3:56 mile, ran 27:55.7 for 10k and even won the Stockholm marathon in 2:13. 33 and could have run much faster for that. He is the current Chairman of his club Hercules Wimbleldon AC.
What was the value of running these mile races. I did notice two of the runners Penney and Nolan were both London cross country Champions!
“At cross-country it is all about your cruising speed. It is about strength and you have got to be able to run the last 400 fast and you need the pace to do it. I learnt that when Frank Horwill of the BMC put me in the position of having to do that, in the first session I had with him. He always said ‘If you want to turn up we can help you!’;
I can remember going down to Crystal Palace and, I was brought up watching. Bernie Ford and Grenville & Graham Tuck hammering out their 1500’s or miles.’
Regarding the mile races at this meeting
“ We always wanted to run a series of Open Meets in the South”