Kevin Skinner and Naomi Taschimowitz are your fastest athletes at UK parkruns this weekend (July 6th).

As parkrun celebrate the slowing down of average times in general, as a sign that more people are having the confidence to get out and try the best way to spend a Saturday morning, Fast Running is also celebrating a slower average top ten this week.

With last week being one of the fastest top tens for both male and female athletes, this week it has been a wee bit slower than normal and we love that. We see it as a sign that our fastest parkrun athletes have headed to one of the best nights in our sport, The Highgate Harriers Nights of the 10,000 PB’s.

parkrun is great for training, setting a new parkrun best time and practicing the art of racing, but we love it when we see athletes supporting great events like the one at Highgate and tying up their laces to face the best domestic talent around.

Enough of us getting on a soapbox, there were still some great quick times at parkrun and the quickest chap of the lot this week was Kevin Skinner of Newham & Essex Beagles. The 2:21 marathoner hasn’t raced much since 2013 so it’s great to see him back in action at Ellenbrook Fields parkrun. The V35 has a 14:19.1 best for 5000m, so has some serious wheels!

Naomi Taschimowitz broke 17 minutes to top the women’s rankings this week with a  great run at Hackney Marshes. It’s not too far from Highgate so maybe the Shaftesbury Barnet athlete, who placed third at the English 10,000m Champs at FASTFRiday recently, is just warming up for later.

With a 5000m best of 15:54.14 and a new 10,000m mark of 34:17.99 from that excellent recent outing at the Orion Harriers track event, Taschimowitz is clearly in excellent form and it is great to see her top of our rankings.

Funnily enough there was a virtual sprint finish for 10th place this week in the women’s rankings with three ladies hitting 18:18 to sneak into the final spot. Alexa Joel, Sarah Grant and Sophie Wood all clocked the same time in different areas of the UK. The parkrun events were in Essex, Northern Ireland and Manchester, showing the wealth of talent across the UK.

Men’s top 10

1) parkrun: Ellenbrook Fields
Kevin Skinner, 15:30, Newham & Essex Beagles
2) parkrun: Peterborough
Joey Croft, 15:33, Huntingdonshire AC
3) parkrun: Dulwich
Ben Shearer, 15:36, Cambridge Harriers
4) parkrun: Shrewsbury
Jack Pickett, 15:39, Wolverhampton & Bilston AC
5) parkrun: Ashford
Louis Small, 15:41, Ashford AC
6) parkrun: Bushy
Andrius Jaksevicius, 15:42, Belgrave Harriers
7) parkrun: Portobello, Edinburgh 
Peter Avent, 15:42, Shettleston Harriers
8) parkrun: Chipping Sodbury
Michael Kallenberg, 15:44, Carmarthen & District Harriers AC
9) parkrun: Kingsbury Water
Tom Fairbrother, 15:44, Ranelagh Harriers
10) parkrun: Great Denham
Alex Ash, 15:47, Wellingborough & District AC

Women’s top 10

1) parkrun: Hackney Marshes
Naomi Taschimowitz, 16:52, Shaftesbury Barnet
2) parkrun: Newcastle 
Charlotte Penfold, 17:16, North Shields Polytechnic AC
3) parkrun: Chipping Sodbury
Eilidh Bell, 17:52, Team Bath AC
4) parkrun: Highbury Fields
Beth Hawling, 17:55, Cheltenham & County Harriers
5) parkrun: Kingsbury Water
Chrissie Wellington, 17:58, B.R.A.T.
6) parkrun: Lowestoft
Samantha Lines, 18:11, Waveney Valley AC
7) parkrun: King’s Lynn
Amy Buckingham, 18:13, Team Purser Running Group
8) parkrun: Jersey
Rachel Gibson, 18:14, North Down AC
9) parkrun: Great Denham
Jo Oregan, 18:15, Riverside Runners
10=) parkrun: Billericay 
Alexa Joel, 18:18, Billericay Striders RC
10=) parkrun: Derry City 
Sarah Grant, 18:18, North Down AC
10=) parkrun: Fletcher Moss
Sophie Wood, 18:18, Salford Harriers & AC

If you would like to run faster at parkrun, top tips to help runners of all abilities can be found here.

RELATED: 7 ways to run faster at parkrun

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