Veteran Rowe turns back the clock

By Rob Batiste

ALAN ROWE turned back the clock with a fine 1,500m win over Steve Dawes in the first of this summer’s track distance races at Foote’s Lane.

Rowe (pictured), who won gold at the distance back in Gibraltar in 1995 and defended the title two years later in Jersey, surged away from Dawes with a lap to go to win in a time of 4min. 11sec.

The veteran’s effort was one of several personal-best performances in a big field of mixed ages.Top under-17 Will Bodkin finished third having seen off Ronan Shally on the last lap and his time of 4-16.6 improved by nearly five seconds on his previous best at the Fortis meeting and was 10sec. better than his Hampshire County Champion-ship run.

The effort lifts him nearly 100 places in the national rankings and he is now just outside the top 100 and in the top 20 in the south-east region.

Tom Paul and Will Steele-Moore were two more under-17s who enjoyed good races, while there was an encouraging return to form for Louise Perrio after illness.

Meanwhile, veteran Fiona Argent has won the British Masters pentathlon title for the 50-plus age-group in cold and wet Oxford.

In the space of five hours she posted 16.18sec. for the 80m hurdles and set a new PB of 3.66 for the long jump.

‘It’s given me a further boost for my preparations for the European Championships in July when I will be doing the heptathlon – seven events over two days.’