INTERNATIONAL athlete Tom Humphries showed top form when switching indoors to Birmingham’s NIA this week.
After success on the road and cross country over the past few months, the Gnosall runner ran an excellent 1500m on the boards, clocking an indoor personal best time of 3.47.70.
Humphries took second spot in the Birmingham Games behind City of Stoke’s Llorenc Sales, who won in 3.45.29, while James Poole (Blackheath and Bromley) was third in 3.54.97.
It was the second race in three days for Humphries (Cannock and Stafford AC) who chalked up another indoor best of 8.02.11 when finishing third in a 3,000m race in Linz, Austria.
These performances come on the back of his victory in the Bupa Edinburgh 10k in October, that was followed by an excellent cross country performance in the Scottish capital last month.
Humphries was included in a strong Great Britain team for the Bupa Great Edinburgh cross country challenge against the USA and Team Europe and he finished fourth, having led for most of the 8k race.
The NIA event was the stage for several other good performances from C and S athletes, including an under-15 girls 800m quartet. They occupied four of the top six places, with Chloe Wilde finishing strongly in second spot in 2.30.25, with Charlie Peters (fourth) in a personal best 2.31.73, ahead of Phillipa Nock (fifth) 2.34.60 and Elisha Walker 2.34.63.
The latter two had competed in the Staffordshire Schools cross country championships at Stoke the previous day, an event that produced one C and S champion with Iris Davies taking the year 7 title for Stafford and District.
She finished 20 seconds clear of club and Stafford team-mate Molly Shermer.
Ryan Ashforth just missed out on gold in the junior boys race, having to settle for second spot.
However he received great support from Harry Redford 4th, Oliver Gleman 10th, Josh Wilson 12th, Luke Owen 15th and Harry Jones 19th as Stafford took team gold.
There was also an excellent team gold for Stafford senior boys, thanks to James McCann 2nd, Aaron Houseman 3rd and Jack Longmore 5th.
Stafford secured third place in the U15 girls race through Rachael Jones 6th, Walker 8th and Ellie Baxter 23rd. Nock, representing Cannock, was 21st.
Another Stafford team in third spot were the inter-boys, with James Russell 8th and Adam White 12th. Fellow club runner Ashley Daniel, running for Cannock, was 15th.
