Middle-distance runners are on song at Stratford as they produce a flurry of personal bests

Max Burgin can never be accused of not giving his all in an 800m race. At the UK Championships two weeks ago, the 21-year-old collapsed over the finish line in exhaustion and had to be carried out of the arena by medics. At the London Athletics Meet on Sunday (July 23) he was able to stagger off the track unaided after winning in 1:43.85 but then spent several minutes being sick into a giant wheelie bin.

“I had a little bit of a club today,” he smiled. “There were three of us going at it!”

One of the athletes joining Burgin in throwing up was Ben Pattison. A few minutes earlier he had also followed Burgin home in the 800m in a PB of 1:44.02.

It was one of 10 lifetime bests set by British middle-distance runners at the London event with five of them coming in the men’s 800m alone as the first six ran inside 1:45.00. Elsewhere, there were three PBs by Brits in the men’s 1500m with other lifetime bests coming in the women’s 800m and 5000m whereas Aimee Pratt narrowly missed her PB with 9:16.10 in the 3000m steeplechase.

British middle-distance PBs at the London Athletics Meet
Ben Pattison – 1:44.02 men’s 800m
Alex Botterill – 1:44.75 men’s 800m
Thomas Randolph – 1:44.88 men’s 800m
Ethan Hussey – 1:44.96 men’s 800m
Reece Sharman-Newell – 1:45.49 men’s 800m
Katie Snowden – 1:58.00 women’s 800m
Neil Gourley – 3:30.60 men’s 1500m
Elliot Giles – 3:30.92 men’s 1500m
Matt Stonier – 3:31.30 men’s 1500m
Megan Keith – 14:56.98 women’s 5000m

This impressive PB-fest doesn’t even include Burgin’s run – which was a mere season’s best as his PB is 1:43.52 – plus Jemma Reekie’s 1:57.30 rip-roaring 800m win to bring the house down. Don’t forget, Brits like world 1500m Jake Wightman, Olympic medallists Laura Muir and Josh Kerr, in-form Dan Rowden, UK record-breaking Eilish McColgan and Keely Hodgkinson – the latter being a late withdrawal in London due to sickness – were not even in action.

“With three and a half weeks to go I’m really happy,” said Neil Gourley, who led the Brits home in the men’s 1500m in a PB of 3:30.60. “I’m getting closer and closer to the front of the field in world-class races like this. I’m really starting to hit my peak form this year. The whole point this year for me was to time things right leading into the World Champs.”

So what led to all the PBs in London? A great track, decent weather and tremendous 50,000-strong crowd support no doubt helped. The Brits were also dragged around to fast times by world-class opposition, although in Burgin’s case it the presence of pacemaker Erik Sowinski probably helped to hold him back in the early stages as he went through the first lap in a still-sizzling 49.77.

Gourley, for example, chased home 1500m winner Yared Nuguse, as the American ran 3:30.44 just ahead of Norway’s Narve Gilje Nordås.

Gudaf Tsegay also won a brilliant women’s 5000m in 14:12.29 as the Ethiopian out-sprinted world cross-country champion Beatrice Chebet (14:12.92) and Olympic champion Sifan Hassan (14:13.42) with a 60.3 last lap as five women broke 14:20 in the same race for the first time in history and 11 of the first 15 ran PBs.

Among these was Megan Keith, who sliced a whopping 35 seconds off her best with 14:56.98. A few days after winning the European under-23 title, she now has a good shot at being named in the GB team for the World Championships when it is named on Friday (July 28).

It wasn’t just the Brits who got pulled to quick times either. In the women’s 5000m. Medina Eisa, 18, of Ethiopia ran 14:16.54 to smash Tirunesh Dibaba’s world under-20 record, while Alicia Monson took four seconds off Shelby Houlihan’s US record with 14:19.45 and Birke Haylom of Ethiopia ran a world under-18 record of 14:37.94.

Back to Burgin, the Halifax Harrier kicked off the frenzy of PBs as he competed in one of the earlier events staged before the televised Diamond League window. Much was expected of him last year prior to the World Championships and the same hype could start to build again in coming days following this victory in London.

Twelve months ago he arrived in Eugene as one of the podium favourites but was unable to compete after being struck by deep vein thrombosis on the long flight from England to America. It was the latest in a series of mid-season injury blows that punctured his season at a crucial time, but he says it was a “health issue” and not an injury and largely down to bad luck.

He later found out he has a genetic predisposition to DVT. “Short of taking blood thinners,” he explained, “I’m not sure what I could have done.”

So far his career has not been short of drama because at the UK Championships earlier this month he led through 400m in sub-50 seconds before desperately hanging on to place third in a photo finish behind Pattison and winner Rowden. It was his first race of the season, too, due to having to manage slightly inflamed Achilles tendons.

READ MORE: Full coverage from the London Athletics Meet

“It’s amazing what a few sessions can do for my fitness,” he said in London. “The UK Champs was the worst I’ve ever felt at the finish of a race. People said I tripped over my own feet but I fell because I couldn’t lift my legs up anymore. I couldn’t move my legs and couldn’t move my body when I finished, which is why I had to go off in a wheelchair.”

Are the Achilles okay now? “I’ve got them taped here as a precaution, really. But I’ve just run 1:43.8 so it can’t be that bad?”