Racing at Hackney Marshes and Belfast Victoria parkrun sees Hannah Viner and Paul Pollock post quick times this weekend. Here are the fastest parkrun times across the UK on Saturday (October 27).

A parkrun PB puts Hannah Viner atop the UK rankings this week. The Highgate Harrier ran 16:45, not far from her 16:37.21 5000m best in what seems like a great bit of park racing on Hackney Marshes.

All top three of women this week come from the one parkrun event.

The race for second, between Yasmin Goater and Tara Bage, was only six seconds apart with 17:31 a personal best for the Guildford & Godalming AC runner.

Although Goater mainly focuses on 800/1500m and cross country it is a sign of things to come going into the cross country season. Tara Bage, of Brighton Phoenix, has a similar focus to Goater and was also quicker than any previous parkrun or 5k event with 17:37.

It seems that all three runners have ties Highgate Harriers so it may have been a training group outing with Emily Burgess running 18:15 too. The importance of having a group training group is something that has been a focus of late in many discussions with elite athletes.

Ireland international Paul Pollock dipped under 15 minutes at Belfast Victoria parkrun. The new course record for the timed event is 14:56. Pollock tweeted: “what a way to start the weekend! New CR at the always excellent Belfast Victoria parkrun.”

Joshua Cowperthwaite was the second fastest male runner of the weekend, with a 15:07 at Albert parkrun in Middlesborough. The U20 has run sub 15 minutes at the event in the past, and seems to be in fine form as he won the first round of the North Yorkshire & South Durham League on 14th October.

Maxwell Dumbrell of Brighton Phoenix ran 15:12 at the fast Worthing parkrun, just ahead of Thomas Niner in 15:21 at the same event. Racing can bring the best out of athletes and it is a parkrun best for Dumbrell who ran 52:19 for 29th at the Great South Run the weekend before.

Niner, of the ABT training group, has been focusing on middle distance and has posted new fastest times over 400, 800 and 1500m the summer, as well as new 5k and 10k PBs too. Both his 1:53.98 ad 3:52.50 for 800 & 1500 out him in the top 200 in the country this year.

With Worthing and Albert parkrun both having two athletes a piece in the men’s rankings they nearly were the quickest event of the week, but that honour goes to Hackney Marshes as the three female athletes swept a 1,2,3 in our UK list.

Men’s top 10

1) parkrun: Belfast Victoria
Paul Pollock, 14:56, Abbey AC
2) parkrun: Albert, Middlesborough
Joshua Cowperthwaite, 15:07, Middlesborough AC
3) parkrun: Worthing
Maxwell Dumbrell, 15:12, Brighton Phoenix
4) parkrun: Fulham Palace
John Sanderson, 15:13, Guildford & Godalming AC
5) parkrun: Long Eaton
Luke Duffy, 15:17, Mansfield Harriers & AC
6) parkrun: Worthing
Thomas Niner, 15:21, Brighton & Hove City AC
7=) parkrun: Dishley, Loughborough
Richard Horton, 15:24, Poole AC
7=) parkrun: Hockley Woods
Adam Hickey, 15:24, Southend-on-Sea AC
9) parkrun: Porthcawl
James Hunt, 15:26, Cardiff AAC
10) parkrun: Hastings
Gary Foster, 15:27, Hastings AC
11) parkrun: Albert, Middlesborough
Kieran Walker, 15:30, Sedgefield Harriers

N.B. As a later update added an additional runner to the top ten we keep Kieran Walker at number 11.

Women’s top 10

1) parkrun: Hackney Marshes
Hannah Viner, 16:45, Highgate Harriers
2) parkrun: Hackney Marshes
Yasmin Goater, 17:31, Guildford & Godalming AC
3) parkrun: Hackney Marshes
Tara Bage, 17:37, Brighton Phoenix
4) parkrun: Cannon Hill, Birmingham
Nicola Sykes, 1745, Bournville Harriers
5) parkrun: Newbury
Georgia Hayes, 17:50, Reading AC
6) parkrun: Burnham and Highbridge
Hannah Taunton, 17:57, Taunton AC
7) parkrun: Pomphrey Hill
Charlotte Emily Taylor-Green, 18:00, Bristol and West AC
8) parkrun: Panshanger
Victoria Pritchard, 18:01, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers
9) parkrun: Westmill
Annabel Gummow, 18:04, Winchester and District AC
10) parkrun: Lowestoft
Colleen Nicole Mukuya, 18:06, Great Yarmouth & District AC

Would you like to run faster at parkrun? Top tips to help runners of all abilities hit a parkrun best can be found here.

RELATED: 7 ways to run faster at parkrun

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