Aly Dixon and Tom Marshall lead the standings after the first day of virtual competition

Tom Marshall returned a superb time of 2:24.00 after an exciting opening first day of British Milers’ Club 1km Time Trial action.

The event is the second in the BMC TT series, following the popular Bannister Mile earlier in May.

The early leader, as he had been on day one of the Bannister Mile, was fellow Welshman Guy Smith with 2:27.00. However, as the evening session drew towards a close, sub-3:50 metric miler Adam Wright (2:25.00) moved into pole position, with 3:39 metric miler Marshall taking over at the top of the leaderboard by the close of play.

In a further dramatic twist, training partner James Heneghan produced an eleventh hour 2:26.00 to put himself in the mix.

However, under-17 Osian Perrin, who has run 8:23.00 for 3km, came into the reckoning in stunning fashion with 2:25.00, to go level with Wright overnight.

Baldvin Magnusson (2:31.00) and Grant Muir (based out of Melbourne) with 2:34.00 also put great kilometre stints in with under-20 Thomas Gostelow next quickest with 2:35.00.

GB marathoner Aly Dixon again tested herself over the ‘shorter stuff’ and, as she candidly admitted, with the aid of a strong tailwind returned an impressive 2:51.00.

This was the quickest female time of the day by the W40 athlete.

Jennifer St Jean (W45) of the USA made her 1km count with a swift 3:11.00.

Rhys Hardman (U17) shone with a 2:37.00 run, which was equalled by Tyler Cartlidge. Rhys was just one second ahead of coach James Thie (also the coach of Marshall and Heneghan) which survived the day as the top ranked M40 performance.

Shining brightly in the under-15 section was Bethan Hardman with a 2:54.00 return, with Edwards Eden also producing a strong stint at 3:00.00. Zak Ferguson was another young athlete in a hurry with a 2:45.00 TT.

While event entry is free, participants are encouraged to donate to the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund through justgiving.com/fundraising/bmc1k

Report by event co-organisers Steve Green and Matt Long, with thanks to the assistance of Matt de Freitas.